Dream Quarantine
by SilverHeart09
Summary: The team wake up trapped in a dark cell filled with skeletons and chained to the wall. Realising that they've become trapped in a dream state, where there is no way out and they are being tortured with the memories of when they were most vulnerable and afraid, and with one of them deteriorating rapidly, the team has to work together to find a way to wake up before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

_Not quite sure what part of my mind this one came wrong, but I'm proud of it anyway :) Please please PLEASE review, I will grant you some chocolate chip cakes I just made :)_

* * *

There was a strange buzzing noise coming from somewhere, and he could smell dirt, something rotting and blood in his nostrils.

Tony battered his ear randomly, obviously finding that a buzzing noise was the worst of his problems, it was then he realised the noise was actually coming _from _his ear.

There was something heavy on his chest and his vision was dark. Tony tried to open his eyes but then realised that actually they were already open, and it really was just pitch black.

_Well this doesn't look good, _he thought to himself, his body kicking into 'fight, flight, or stay the fuck where you are' mode. Tony tried to get to his feet but the heavy thing on his chest wasn't impressed with that idea. He tried to brush the thing off but his fingers met something soft that felt suspiciously like skin. Tony took a deep breath, then regretted it as he coughed up a load of dirt. His fingers searched for whatever it was he'd found a minute ago and he realised the skin belonged to someone's hand. He squeezed it and the thing made a 'hrr' noise.

Tony tried to find where the thing's head would be (if it was a human) and felt soft hair, hair too long to belong to a man, well, one of the Avengers anyway.

'Natasha?' he croaked, sounding like a 70 year old man. 'That you?'

The thing didn't respond, and Tony felt around him, trying to find something to hold onto in the pitch black so he could sit up. His searching hand found something thin that appeared to be attached to a wall that didn't give way when he pulled on it. Tony pulled himself up holding the thing, which he was pretty sure judging by the hair and the faint traces of perfume was Natasha, up with him. Something jangled and pain seared through his wrist and feet. Tony swore as he released that there was a chain clapped tightly around both his wrists and both his ankles, attaching him to something.

Now sat upright and cradling the thing _(Natasha?)_ in one arm, Tony patted down his shirt, ripping the material away from his arc and illuminating the room in a soft blue light. The light shone on the thing's face and Tony discovered he was right in thinking it was his fiery Russian teammate, who also had both wrists and ankles clamped tightly in a chain, both their chains attached to a metal circle clamped securely into the wall.

'Natasha?' he said softly, shaking her lightly. 'You okay?' His fingers searched for a pulse in her neck and he let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding when he found it beating fiercely under her skin.

Natasha didn't move and Tony turned his head to the side, trying to find the door or a way out, or at least something he could use to cut through the chains. Instead he found the thing he'd used to pull himself upright, the thin thing that had been attached to a wall.

A skeleton that appeared to have _melted _into the wall, its jaws wide open in what must have been an agonising scream as its flesh burned.

Tony yelped and scooted away from it, holding Natasha protectively into his chest. The chain pulled tight on his foot and pain erupted through his body, replaced by panic as he released that around him in what looked like a tiny cell were hundreds of skeletons, tiny bones and rotting flesh with hair still attached to the bodies.

Tony closed his eyes and choked down the bile burning in his throat. When he opened them again he looked at Natasha and Natasha only, forcing himself to ignore the environment he was in.

'I'm gonna get us out of this, Tasha,' he said. 'I swear, I'm going to get us out.' With the horror of his room pushed slightly out of his mind now he had a goal, Tony was also able to focus on that persistent buzzing noise coming from his ear. Tony pulled Natasha onto his lap, keeping her limbs away from the… stuff on the floor… and felt in his ear for its source. He came away with the small SHIELD comm radio buzzing furiously in his palm, small wires hanging out of it.

_The radio. _

Tony gently traced the outside of Natasha's ear, searching for her radio but coming up squat.

_It must have fallen out when we were thrown/dragged/chucked in here, _Tony reasoned.

'Okay, something to do, distraction, fix the damn radio,' Tony said out loud, trying to pull himself together. 'First, find something small enough to use to put wires back in.'

Tony decided to not look around the room for something to use in fear of uttering a girly scream and throwing up over Natasha, instead searching on his body for something small and metallic that he could use to reconnect the wires and get communication back up with his team.

Nothing.

Not to be disheartened, Tony patted down Natasha's clothes, wishing she was wearing her usual catsuit which probably had a spare radio in its pocket. Tony fingers found something small and blunt, quickly realising it was an earring. Tony gently pulled it out of her ear and held it up to the Arc, exactly the right shape and not sharp enough to break through the radio. Tony picked up the earset and pulled off the cover, exposing the wires underneath. He gently prodded them back into their sockets with the earring, clicking them into place. The radio whistled and vibrated on his palm, a sign it was working.

Tony grinned and clicked the cover back onto it, pushing it into his ear.

'Guys, come in, can anyone hear me?'

**XxXxXxX**

'Steve I swear you're going to dislocate your arm if you keep pulling that hard, stop!' Bruce said.

Steve stopped trying to pull the chain free from the wall and sat back on the ground, out of breath. 'We have to find the others,' he said between gasps. 'They could be in trouble.'

'They might find us, remember,' Bruce said reassuringly, trying to keep away from the carcass of whatever that hell that was on the floor next to him. 'Any luck with the radio?'

Steve shook his head. 'Nothing but static,' he said. 'Yours?'

Bruce shook his head. 'Nothing.'

The light from Steve's penlight flickered, casting eerie shadows across the room. 'The battery isn't going to hold out for much longer,' Steve said. 'I better turn it off to save the power.'

Bruce grimaced, not liking the idea of sitting in the pitch black. 'It's at times like these I envy Tony having a built-in nightlight.'

Steve turned off the light and choking darkness descended on them. Bruce took long deep breaths just to prove to himself that he still _could. _

Steve sensed his discomfort and tried to keep his mind off it. 'Who do you think is with who?' he asked.

Bruce shrugged. 'I wouldn't like to guess,' he said. 'But I think whoever's orchestrated this probably paired us up so there are no two strong team members together. With that in mind I'm guessing that Tony is either with Clint or Tasha and Thor is either with Tony or Clint.'

'Surely the Hulk would count as a strong team mate?' Steve asked.

'They probably know I wouldn't risk it in a cell this size,' Bruce said. 'I'd squash you.'

Steve chuckled. 'What a way to go,' he said.

They sat in silence for a few moments until Bruce got freaked by the darkness. 'I wonder what the others are doing,' he said.

'Well, I'm sure Tony is driving whoever he's with insane,' Steve said. 'And Thor is probably trying to smash the ground with his bare fists.'

Bruce nodded. 'That actually sounds very likely,' he said. 'I just hope everyone's okay.'

'Me too,' Steve said. 'I'm sure they are, we all stand up for each other and protect each other.'

Bruce nodded grimly. 'You're not wrong,' he said.

**XxXxXxX**

'YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR THE MIGHTY THOR!' Thor bellowed, smashing the ground with Mjolnir repeatedly.

'Thor, please, you're giving me a headache, and that hammer-smash-floor thing clearly isn't working,' Clint said, watching amused.

'Do you have a better plan?' Thor asked, continuing to play whack-a-mole with the floor.

'Do I have a plan at all would be a better question,' Clint muttered. He shifted away a few more feet from the skeleton in the corner. Now that Natasha wasn't here he didn't have to pretend that they didn't freak him out.

'Perhaps our fellow comrades will have heard the noise,' Thor said, pausing to examine the lack of damage he'd done to the floor.

'I wouldn't be surprised if the whole of the Eastern Seaboard hadn't heard the noise,' Clint said, eyebrow raised. 'They probably thought it was another earthquake.'

'How long do we have before the light goes out?' Thor asked.

Clint glanced up at the glowstick he'd attached to the ceiling. 'Those things last for a while,' he said. 'I'd say about another 6 hours. Shame there isn't a fridge here, Tony reckons they last longer if you put them in a fridge.'

'Do you think our comrades are safe?' Thor asked, looking worried.

'I sure as hell hope so,' Clint said. 'If they're not I'm going to strangle all of them for making us worry. And what's up with Mew-Mew? Why isn't it blasting the floor to smithereens?'

He examined Mjolnir. 'It doesn't feel right,' he said. 'I believe there's some kind of powerful magic here preventing it from charging.'

'Sounds like a dampening field to me,' Clint said, who enjoyed many Star Trek movie marathons with Tony and Bruce on the weekends.

'A what?' Thor asked, confused.

'Magic,' Clint said, not feeling bothered enough to explain himself.

'Powerful magic,' Thor agreed.

Clint felt for the radio in his ear, he'd tried to send a message a minute ago but all he'd got was the bzzzzt indicating that the other's radios weren't functioning.

'How the hell do we get out of here?' he asked, glumly. 'Where ever _here _even is, there's no doors or windows, we're basically stuck in a four sided concrete block.'

'We shall find a way,' Thor said reassuringly. 'We must have got in here somehow, therefore we must also be able to get out again.'

'I hope you're right,' Clint said. 'Cause I for one was looking forward to eating some of those biscuits that Pepper made.'

'Pepper?' Thor said, confused.

Clint furrowed his brow at him, then realised that actually Thor hadn't met Pepper, or heard of her. He'd been in Asgard for a while after the whole Avengers vs. Loki thing.

'Pepper is Tony's girlfriend,' he explained. 'His better half.'

Thor stared at him in shock. 'Tony has a… female companion?' he asked.

'A girlfriend, yeah,' Clint said. 'There was a big "well it's about time" press thing when that came out.'

'How long has he known her?' Thor asked.

'About 11 years.'

'And when did they become romantically involved?'

'About 8 months ago.'

Thor nodded understandingly. 'Then I agree,' he said. 'It is "about time".'

'That woman is a godsend,' Clint said. 'And she makes these mean ginger biscuits.'

'_Guys, come in, can anyone hear me?' _Clint's radio sparked to life and his finger stabbed the respond button.

'Tony? That you?'

'_Oh thank god, I thought I was having some horrible nightmare,' _Tony's voice said, sounding ridiculously cheerful despite their situation.

'_Wait, what did you just say?' _Bruce asked over the com.

'_Bruce! You're alive!' _Tony said, sounding happy.

'_Rewind to the bit about the nightmare,' _Steve said.

'_Capsicle? You too? And you mean the whole "this is like some horrible nightm…" oh shit.'_

There was an awful pause from everyone on their radios as they realised exactly what happened and exactly why they couldn't get out.

'_We're stuck in our own minds, aren't we?' _Tony said, sounding slightly scared.

Steve sounded much the same. _'Yes,' _he said. _'I believe we are. We all drank that tea thing he gave us didn't we?'_

'_Sonofabitch,' _Bruce swore.

'I don't follow,' Thor said, looking at Clint.

'Remember that Dr Sergot gave us that tea when we got to the lab?' Clint said. 'The doctor that ordered a routine blood test? The doctor that told us about the dream quarantine thing he'd created?'

'_Shit,' _Tony said, summing up all of their thoughts in one simple word. _'He must have put sedative in that tea. Real fucking powerful if it managed to bring Thor down.'_

'Wait, where's Natasha?' Clint said, panicking.

'_She's with me,' _Tony reassured him. _'She's fine, she's just unconscious.'_

'How do we get out?' Thor asked. 'If we are "trapped in our own minds"? And where are our bodies?'

'Tony? Bruce? You two are the science geeks?' Clint said, shrugged at Thor.

'_The whole idea of a dream quarantine is that you _can't _get out,' _Tony said. _'At least, that's how that creepy doctor guy explained it. And our bodies are probably lying on the floor of that lab in some form of coma.'_

'_There must be a failsafe of some kind,'_ Bruce said. _'A way for us to override it?'_

Clint could almost hear Tony shrug over the comm. _'I don't know,' _he said. _'I'm not an expert on this.'_

Tony's 'I don't know' was enough to send a chill through everyone's spine. Tony knew _everything. _

'_Do you guys all have the "pitch black, scary skeletons, chained to a wall, no exit" dream that Bruce and I are having?' _Steve asked.

There was mutual agreement at this and then Tony voiced an interesting point: _'I thought in dreams you couldn't do things like turn the lights on and off, or feel pain?' _he pointed out.

'_That's true,' _Bruce said. _'Maybe this isn't a dream as such, maybe it's just our imagination running wild while we're in a coma state?' _

'_How do people wake up from dreams?' _Natasha's voice came from over the comm suddenly.

'Tasha! You okay?' Clint asked, worried.

'_I'm fine, although I woke up on Tony, which is slightly disconcerting.'_

'_Did you _want _to wake up facing the rotten carcass of whatever the hell that is in the corner? Plus, you're still sat on me, so obviously you're not that bothered.'_

'_You're comfy to sit on and the floor is filthy and these jeans are new.'_

'_Guys, I think we're losing you? You sound quieter,' _Steve's voice interjected suddenly.

'_We're sharing a comm,'_ Tony said. _'Natasha lost hers.'_

'_Anyway, to answer your question, people wake up in loads of different ways,' _Bruce said, butting through their bickering. _'Through external stimuli such as a loud noise in the background, through a "kick", when you jump off a cliff or something in a dream, or naturally on your own.'_

'_Well there's no cliffs for us to jump off so that isn't an option,' _Natasha said, sounding annoyed.

'_Plus, if I remember what that sonofabitch doctor said, if you die in a quarantine dream, you die in reality,' _Tony said.

'Shit,' Clint said.

There was a pause as the six of them tried to think of something to say that could reassure the others, coming up squat.

'Well if anyone thinks of a plan, feel free to share,' Steve said.

'_Pepper's going to kill me, I had a board meeting today,'_ Tony remarked.

They all felt his pain.

* * *

_Pleaseeeeee review, pretty please? I'll update quicker._


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay, so I googled what happened to Natasha's parents and it told me they both died in a fire. I know in the Avengers Loki mentioned a hospital fire and her dad being called Drakov (insert correct spelling here), so I deliberately haven't mentioned her dad's name in this chapter. For her mother's name I googled Russian names and picked the one I liked the most. And I know that most people think Tony wasn't in the car when it crashed, so I'm using creative licence for that one, I think it works well :) Anyway, I would like to think the brilliant 'where the wind blows' for giving me some inspiration for this chapter :) Russian translations are at the end, and were taking off Google Translate, and we all know how reliable that is._

_Please review! Reviews make me smile :)_

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Pepper tapped her perfectly manicured fingernails against the conference table desk. Her and Natasha had decided to escape the chaos that is the male Avengers on the weekend to spend a girly day getting their hair done and nails painted. Tony had told her she looked gorgeous, which made her blush, and Clint had winked at Natasha, which earned him a clip round the ear.

Pepper tried calling Tony on her phone again, still no answer. The board looked at her, eyebrows raised expectantly, and Pepper smiled sheepishly, while fury boiled on the inside. He _promised _he'd be here, he'd sworn to her. Which also worried her slightly. Tony was a nightmare, he didn't do what he was told, he drove her out of her mind, he made her worry unnecessarily, he made up a load of ridiculous excuses as reasons to not go to meetings, but he never outright _lied _to her face, he'd never done that.

'I'm sure he'll get here,' Pepper said. 'Shall we start?'

After the meeting, in which Tony Stark had been a no-show, Pepper tried calling him again and left a message on his voicemail. 'Tony, you're worrying me, answer your phone.'

She tried calling the main phone at the tower in case he or any of the Avengers were there, but got no answer. She even rang his home in Malibu even though she knew full well he wouldn't be there. Panicking slightly, Pepper called the rest of the Avengers on their cells, but only received voicemail and 'please call later' messages.

Pepper brought up the locator on her StarkPhone and searched for her absentee boyfriend, even if he was nowhere near his phone, the locator searched for the Arc energy as well. Pepper quickly got a location, putting Tony somewhere in the vicinity of the North Atlantic Ocean.

_I really hope he's on the helicarrier and not IN the ocean._

Pepper called the SHIELD base on the helicarrier and managed to get hold of Nick Fury, who told her the Avengers had gone down for a blood test but should have been back by now.

'Well they're not,' Pepper said, worried. 'Can you check and see if they're still down there?'

When the scout agent came back up (_the SHIELD equivalent of a Star Trek red shirt, _Pepper thought to herself), Fury told her that the door was sealed and they couldn't get in.

Pepper took a deep breath and tried not to panic. 'Okay,' she said. 'I'm coming over.' She hung up and called Tony's helicopter pilot, who wasn't in the least bit surprised at her request, having worked for Tony Stark long enough to know he was, in his opinion, slightly nuts.

'Shoot it!' Fury ordered the agents. 'Get that damn door open!'

It wasn't actually the infirmary door that was locked, that would have been relatively easy to blow up, it was the SHIELD blast door _before _the infirmary doors that was sealed, which was, as the name suggests, impervious to explosions.

'Nothing's touching it,' Maria Hill said, then raised a hand to her earpiece. 'Agent Carter, what experimental equipment do you have down there that could put a dent in the blast doors?'

'No need, I got this,' Pepper said, appearing from behind them, one of Tony's experimental nanobots clutched in her hand that she'd grabbed from his desk drawer in a hurry.

'What's that?' Fury asked, frowning at the tiny circular disk Pepper held in her palm.

Pepper sighed. 'Don't ask me to explain it,' she said. 'But I've seen this thing in action, it disables security protocols and locks, I'm hoping it'll work on the door.'

Pepper pressed the nanobot against the door mechanism and it turned red and started flashing, humming quietly to itself. It was several seconds before it went green, buzzed, and the door slid open.

Pepper pocketed the disk and gladly let the heavily armed SHIELD agents go first, following afterwards even though Fury yelled at her to stay back.

'Director Fury!' one of the agents shouted from inside the infirmary. 'We've got a problem!'

Pepper pushed past Fury and ran into the room.

All six Avengers were lying on the floor in various positions, looking feverish and twitching slightly, shaking like they were too cold but sweating like they were too hot.

'They've got something stuck to the back of their necks,' one of the agents said, tugging at a small metallic disk Clint had stuck to his neck.

'Don't pull it!' Fury ordered. 'We have no idea what that thing is.'

Pepper ran over to Tony and pushed his hair away from his face, noticing how cold and clammy he felt. 'Tony?' she whispered.

'Get them up on the beds,' Fury said. 'Get a medic in here and find Doctor Sergot, he was the one that was supposed to be doing the blood tests.'

The agents carefully lifted their fallen comrades onto the beds and the medic arrived a few moments later and quickly checked their vitals.

'They're not looking too good,' he said. 'Skins cold and clammy, fever, pale, and then there's that,' he added, pointing at the metal disk stuck on their necks. 'I don't know what it is but it can't be doing them any good. Can't we try to get it off?'

'We need to analyse it first and see what it is,' Fury said. 'If we try and pull that thing off it could kill them.'

Pepper was stood next to Tony holding his hand, but when she heard this she pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it over the disk in his neck. 'JARVIS, analyse,' she said.

'_Analysing,' _JARVIS replied. Why Tony thought he needed his AI in the phone was beyond her, but she was glad she had him now.

'_Analysis complete, the disk is a neuro-transmitter. It is attached to the brain stem and is injecting a compound of some kind, which I have been unable to determine. Any attempt to remove the disk will cause instant brain death.'_

'Okay,' Fury said. 'For now the disk stays. Now someone find that damn doctor and bring him in here so I can kick his ass back to medical school!

'Come on Tony,' Pepper whispered. 'Stay with me.'

**XxXxXxX**

Tony could hear music. Soft, lilting, beautiful music. He frowned. There was only one person he knew who could play like that, and she'd been dead a long time.

The world was dark, and Tony realised it was because his eyes were closed. He opened them slowly, pleased to find there was no harsh light waiting for him, only a warm, comforting, soft glow coming from the room he found himself in. He was comfortable, and realised he was lying on something soft. On closer examination this turned out to be a sofa, a sofa he vaguely recognised. The music was coming from somewhere over his right shoulder and Tony pulled himself up onto his elbows, confused and wondering how the hell he got here.

The music continued, and Tony recognised it as Debussy's 'Clair De Lune,' a piece he'd mastered by the time he was nine thanks to his mother's patient tutoring and support.

_Mom?_

Tony peered over his shoulder, feeling slightly nauseous, and his expression dropped from confusion to nothing in a second. He stared, blankly, at the sight of his mother playing the piano, a small boy in his pyjamas curled up next to her.

'Mom?'

Even to his own voice that word sounded strange, it was a word he hadn't used in years, and seemed rusty to his ears.

His mother didn't acknowledge his existence, she simply carried on playing, the tiny boy cuddled up next to her blinking his sleepy eyes.

Tony stood up, and made his way, slowly, over to the piano, watching his mother's fingers dancing over the piano keys in her own unique way. The piece ended and Maria Stark hugged her little boy tightly. 'Come on, Anthony,' she said, softly, lifting her half asleep son up into her arms. 'Let's get you back to bed, hopefully you won't get any more nightmares, hmm?'

'Mom! Wait!' Tony said, reaching his arms out to her, but an invisible barrier pushed him back, keeping him away from her.

'Mom!' Tony cried. 'Come back!'

But Maria didn't hear him, she simply carried on up the stairs, cradling her little boy tightly in her arms.

The blood rushed in Tony's ears and his vision blurred, suddenly he wasn't in his mother's reassuring warm glow anymore, he was stuck, wedged under debris in the back seat of a car, the sharp tang of blood and metal in his nostrils, smoke curling its way down his throat. He could see his father's dead body crushed in the front seat, and tears blurred his vision as the pain and panic crept up his spine.

'Dad!' he yelled, trying to stay calm, trying not to hyperventilate and inhale more smoke.

In the passenger seat, Maria reached for her son's hand, a long bloody gash in her head, but her eyes were warm, and focused on him.

'It's okay,' Maria said, softly. 'It's okay, Tony. Be brave, darling. Be brave.'

Then her eyes rolled back in their sockets and Tony screamed.

**XxXxXxX**

Natasha was sat on the floor, watching her mother play with a two year old version of her on the carpet of a house she didn't recognise, a small pile of toys around them. Two year old Natasha reached for her mother's long red hair and her mother smiled and spoke to her in soft Russian tones, tickling her under her chin. Little Natasha curled up against her mother and sucked her thumb, absentmindedly playing with a small toy car that had been left on the carpet.

Natasha stared at her mother playing tenderly with her daughter. She didn't remember this, she didn't remember her mother that well, she only remembered a warm glow, and a bright smile.

Natasha felt tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. This is the life that she could have had, the life she lost.

'Мама?' Natasha said, softly. 'Вы меня слышите?'

But her mother didn't respond, and plaited her tiny daughter's red locks, humming to herself.

'Elena!' Came a voice, and Natasha saw her father come storming through the door, a look of panic and worry on his face. 'We must leave!' he said, speaking in English so his daughter didn't understand what he was saying.

Little Natasha looked at her mother, confused. 'Мама?' she said.

Elena patted her daughter's head. 'What's the problem?' she asked her husband.

'We must leave,' her father said. 'It's not safe here, this building is being targeted.'

Natasha stood up, and looked around for hostiles, but saw nothing.

Then a grenade flew through the window and landed on the carpet in front of them. Little Natasha screamed and her mother kicked it away, shielding her tiny daughter's frame from the explosion, which took out the doorway and most of the wall in one fiery blast.

Natasha had curled her body up when she spotted the grenade but noticed that nothing was touching her, no debris, she couldn't feel the heat, she was separated by her family from a hard barrier. Natasha banged on it, trying to reach her parents.

'Не пугайтесь, следуйте за мной быстро,' her mother said, picking Little Natasha up.

'Elena! The roof!' her father cried, looking up.

Acting on instinct, Elena threw her daughter under a cupboard, as the roof caved in and landed on her and her father.

'NO!' Natasha cried, tears flowing down her cheeks. She remembered this scene in her nightmares, remembered fire and heat and smoke and panic. 'Mama!' Natasha yelled, her voice hoarse.

Safe under the cupboard, little Natasha opened her tiny mouth and screamed.

**XxXxXxX**

Natasha sat bolt upright, coughing blood, tears flowing from her eyes. She could vaguely hear her teammates voices in her ear and she pulled her comm out and threw it on the ground, crying hysterically, in a mad panic.

Tony was at her side in an instant and Natasha tried to push him away, but gave up and clung to him, sobbing, her parent's screams ringing in her ears.

Tony didn't say anything, he simply held her and rubbed her back while she cried, the scene of his own nightmare playing itself over and over in his mind, his father's dead face, his mother's last words to him.

_Be brave, darling. Be brave._

Tony had no idea what Natasha had seen, but Barton had mentioned she'd had an horrific upbringing so he didn't want to imagine the horrors that haunted her dreams.

'It's okay, Natasha,' he said softly, using her full name, something he rarely did. 'It's going to be okay.'

Natasha had stopped crying and sat up, wiping her eyes, her expression unreadable. She looked up at him and noticed with guilt he had tears in his eyes, obviously the result of whatever he'd seen.

Natasha held his hand, their chains rattling. 'We'll get through this,' she said, not just to him, to herself as well.

Tony picked up the radio from where she'd flung it on the floor, and from which Steve's voice was yelling at the two of them to answer the damn comm, keeping one hand clasped tightly round hers and held it up between the two of them, so Natasha could hear as well.

'We're okay, guys,' he said, trying to keep the thickness of tears out of his voice.

'_Are you sure? We heard screaming,' _Clint said. _'Is Natasha okay?'_

'I'm fine, Clint,' Natasha said, looking at Tony, a determined expression in her eyes. 'We're both fine.'

'_Whatever this dream thing is, it's messing with our heads,' _Bruce said. _'We need to stay focused, we can't let this beat us.'_

'I have no intention of letting it beat me,' Natasha said, fire blazing in her eyes. 'We're getting out of here. Think, people, there has to be a way out.'

**XxXxXxX**

'Their vitals have stabilised,' the medic said, after Natasha and Tony had stopped thrashing on their beds. 'But Stark's getting worse. Pupillary response non-existent, erratic heart rate. We need to find out what that drug is, he's reacting to it worse than the others.'

'Could it be because of the Arc?' Fury asked.

'Possibly,' the medic said. 'Whatever the chemical is in the Arc could be affecting the drug, making his condition worse.'

'How do we fix it?' Pepper said, squeezing Tony's hand protectively.

'We need to determine what kind of drug they're being pumped full of,' the medic said. 'We need to get a blood sample from all of them and send it down to the labs to analyse.'

'Do it,' Fury ordered. 'Miss Potts, do you think you can find a way to get that _thing _off of their necks without killing them?'

Pepper pulled her laptop out of her bag. 'I can try,' she said.

The R&D team at Stark Industries were surprised when their boss suddenly ordered them to stop working and focus on what seemed to be a secret project. Pepper sent all of JARVIS' scan data to them and a descriptive list of what their vitals were doing.

'_Miss Potts,' _Ray Clarkson said, the line manager for the R&D department. _'Of course we're more than happy to help, but we need more data, who is it that's being effected by these disks?'_

Pepper shook her head. 'That's classified,' she said. 'I wish I could tell you. I need everyone working on this, this is priority. I'll send you updates as I get them, but we need to find a way to get this off their necks without killing them.

'_Them?'_

'Classified, Mr Clarkson, I want constant updates.'

'_Of course, Miss Potts.'_

Pepper hung up and looked at Fury, who nodded. 'Okay, we need those blood samples, and someone find Sergot!'

* * *

**Russian Translations:**

'Вы меня слышите?' – 'Can you hear me?'

'Не пугайтесь, следуйте за мной быстро.' – 'Don't be frightened, follow me quickly.'

_Please review! :D_


	3. Chapter 3

_A slightly longer chapter for all of you! Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed and favourited and followed, you make me happy :) I hope this chapter does not disappoint. I liked this one cause I got to put my student nurse face on :) You'll see what I mean. Now I need to sleep because it's 01:33am and I have an early morning tomorrow._

_Please review! They are like brown paper packages tied up with string :)_

* * *

After the horror of being forced into their past, Tony and Natasha were asleep, exhausted, curled up protectively around one another. Their teammates could hear their soft, level breathing in their ear, a welcome change from the screaming they'd heard before.

'Do you think we should tell them?' Steve asked Bruce, looking worried.

Bruce shook his head. 'No,' he said. 'It's none of our business, we shouldn't mention it to either of them.'

'We saw their dreams, Bruce,' Steve whispered. 'I saw my old friend lying dead in the front of a car, I saw Natasha being ripped away from her family.'

'_We don't say anything,' _Clint said in their ears. _'Bruce is right, it's none of our business.' _There was a pause, then he said: _'I'm apologising in advance in case any of you see my nightmares, and I'd appreciate it if no-one mentions it afterwards.'_

'You got it, Clint,' Steve said.

Bruce nodded. 'I won't say a word,' he said.

Clint looked over at Thor who nodded at him. 'You have my word, friend Hawk,' he said, nodding at him.

They were both jerked out of their talk by twin screams from their two until-recently-asleep teammates.

'Guys?' Steve said, frantically. 'You okay?'

Tony stared at Natasha, chest heaving, a look of horror on his face. Natasha stared right back at him.

'_Guys!' _Clint yelled from the comm on the floor.

'I just saw…' Natasha said, slowly.

Tony looked down at his shackled hands. 'I'm sorry I saw that,' he whispered, sounding slightly hysterical. The meaning behind his words was clear, he wasn't wishing he hadn't see it, he was apologising for intruding on Natasha's memories, even if it was accidental.

'It's not your fault,' Natasha said.

'_GUYS!' _Bruce yelled.

Natasha picked the comm up and angrily shoved it into her ear. 'You bastards!' she yelled. The comm immediately went silent. 'You saw our… our… our nightmares! Our memories!'

'_We just had this discussion,' _Clint said. _'We weren't going to say anything.'_

'_How did you know?' _Steve asked, at least having the courtesy to sound guilty.

'Cause I just saw Tony's and Tony just saw mine,' Natasha said, closing her eyes, a tear trickling down her cheek.

She looked over at Tony and saw that he was trying to hide his face from her, one hand making his hair even messier to avoid eye contact. Natasha crawled over to him and lifted his chin up. Tears were trickling down his face, on Tony- who was usually so arrogant and so sure of himself and so confident- it looked wrong, and Natasha felt deep anger towards Sergot for making her cocky, confident, strong teammate break down like this in front of her.

Natasha covered her comm with one hand. 'It's okay,' she whispered.

Tony gave her a half-hearted attempt at a smile and she hugged him. He stiffened under her touch, obviously confused by her sudden affection, but suddenly hugged her back tightly.

'_I'm sorry, Natasha and Tony,' _Thor said, quietly.

'It's okay, Thor,' Tony said, borrowing the comm from Natasha. 'It's not your fault.'

'_Guys, if you see mine, don't bring it up, okay?' _Clint said.

'Of course,' Tony said. Natasha nodded and Tony didn't bother telling Clint, the archer knew his partner well enough to know she'd respect his wishes.

**XxXxXxX**

'Dr Sergot,' Fury said, hands on hips and glaring at the soon to be ex-doctor in front of him.

He'd been caught trying to escape via one of the escape pods, which launched its occupant into the water below, but the SHIELD agents had caught up to him before he'd had the chance to hit the eject button. One side of his face was bright red from where Pepper and marched right up to him and slapped him.

Fury smirked at the memory and Sergot looked down at his shoes. 'What the hell did you think you were doing?' Fury asked, glaring at him.

'I needed someone to test my new drug on,' Sergot said. 'Who else better to do it than the Avengers? Six of the strongest, most formidable minds in the world.' He frowned. 'I was especially keen to see how Mr Stark would react, how is he, director?'

Fury raised an eyebrow. 'You thought he'd react differently?' he asked. 'Why?'

Sergot gave him a look. 'Isn't that obvious?' he said, smirking.

'You better wipe that smirk off your punk-ass face or I'm letting Miss Potts in again,' Fury informed him.

Sergot winched, obviously remembering the slap, not keen for that to happen again. For such a slim woman, Tony's headstrong girlfriend packed a wallop. 'I thought Mr Stark would react differently because of the Arc technology in his chest,' he said. 'I read his file, I know all about that new element and I was wondering if it would react with the drug.' He smirked, then remembered the director's threat and the smirk quickly vanished.

'I'm guessing that is what's happened?' he asked.

'What makes you say that?'

'Because you asked.'

Fury stared Sergot down. 'You are going to tell me how to wake them up or I am going to throw you off the helicarrier without an escape pod or even a lifejacket.'

Sergot smirked and this time the smirk stayed on his face. 'The "Dream Quarantine" was designed to be the world's greatest prison,' he said. 'You can't wake up from it from the outside or the inside.'

Fury leaned closer and glared at him. 'I don't believe that,' he said. 'Are you telling me you've just trapped my team in their own heads for the rest of their lives?'

'Yes, I am,' Sergot said. 'But don't worry, they won't suffer long. The drug is humane, instead of keeping them in the comatose state they're currently in for the rest of their lives, it causes heart failure, I wouldn't be surprised if they're not already showing signs of it, Mr Stark especially.'

'You and I,' Fury said slowly and dangerously, trying to keep himself from punching Sergot, 'have very different definitions of the word "humane".'

Sergot at least had the courtesy to look terrified.

'So what is currently happening in my team's heads right now?' Fury asked, in a tone which basically said _tell-me-the-fuck-now._

'They'll be having flashbacks of times when they were most vulnerable, most afraid,' Sergot said. 'And the rest of the team will be able to see it.'

'You're telling me the Avengers, a group of six of the most dangerous people with the most grief-stricken, agony filled pasts whose files I have ever read, can _see each other's nightmares?'_

Sergot swallowed, suddenly wishing he was good at swimming. 'That's correct,' he said. 'But I arranged it so they're in groups of two, so they have someone with them to comfort them from the nightmares. They should also have radio contact with the other's via their comm unit, they won't be alone, and in the group of two, they can only see the other's nightmares if they fall asleep, if they stay awake they'll never see it.'

'How very _humane _of you,' Fury growled. 'Now you listen carefully, _Dr _Sergot. You designed that drug, so you better find a way to get them out of their minds because if I don't kill you…' he put his hands on the table in front of Sergot and grinned wickedly. '… you can bet your ass that Pepper Potts will.'

Sergot swallowed.

**XxXxXxX**

Tony suddenly felt dizzy and swayed slightly.

'Whoa, you okay?' Natasha asked, concerned.

'Wha…? Yeah I'm fine, I just feel a bit… weird,' Tony said, shaking his head to snap himself out of it.

'_What's going on?' _Steve's voice came over the comm.

'Tony nearly fainted on me,' Natasha replied. 'You look a bit pale, Stark.'

'I'm fine,' Tony said. 'I just felt like… I dunno what I just felt like, I didn't like it though.'

'_Come on Iron Man stay focused,' _Thor told him. _'We need a plan of escape.'_

'_Thor's right,' _Steve said. _'Can anyone remember any specific about how this dream quarantine thing works.'_

'Something about a neuro-inhibitor whatsit,' Tony said.

'_That's real helpful,' _Clint said. _'Anything else?'_

'Shut up, Clint,' Natasha told her partner. 'What neuro-inhibitor whatsit?'

'I don't remember exactly,' Tony said. 'He mentioned something, something that attaches itself to something and pumps you full of something to keep you in the dream state.'

'_Great,' _Clint said. _'Are you telling me I could have something stuck to my…'_

'_Clint! There are ladies present!' _Steve told him.

'_Yeah, but that lady is Tasha, OW!' _There came a noise that sounded very much like someone hitting Clint.

'_Do not be disrespectful to Agent Romanoff,' _Thor told him.

'_Alright alright,' _Clint said. _'You were saying, Tony?'_

'Um… right. He mentioned something, some kind of disk,' Tony said, subconsciously reaching for the back of his neck.

'Is it on the neck?' Natasha asked, noticing the movement.

Tony looked at her blankly. 'Sorry, Tasha?'

Natasha pointed at where his arm was. 'You just reached for your neck when you said that. Is that where it's attached?'

Tony pulled his arm away and looked at his hand.

'I don't know, I think… whoa…' he lurched to one side and Natasha caught him before he smacked his head on either the concrete wall or a skeleton.

'Tony, you look awful, what's wrong?' she said, frowning at her teammate.

'_Guys, what's going on?' _Bruce said. _'What's wrong with Tony?'_

'I don't feel good,' Tony mumbled, eyes closing.

Natasha slapped him across the face. 'Don't zone out on me, Stark,' she said sternly. 'We need you, now what's wrong, tell me.'

'Whatever that compound is we're being injected with, it's not agreeing with me,' Tony said weakly.

'Compound, whoever said anything about a compound?' Natasha said, frowning.

'JARVIS said it,' Tony mumbled.

'_JARVIS isn't here, Tony,' _Bruce said. _'Natasha what's going on?'_

'I don't know,' Natasha said. 'But he isn't looking too good, we need to find a way to get out of here now.'

'_Hang in there, Tony,' _Thor said. _'We need you.'_

**XxXxXxX**

'It's not good news,' Fury said, walking back into the infirmary where the medics were busy with the team and Pepper was analysing Mr Clarkson's preliminary findings on her laptop, one hand protectively smoothing down her boyfriend's hot forehead.

'Why did I think you'd say that?' Pepper said, sighing and looking down at Tony.

'There isn't a way to get them out of it,' Fury said. 'At least that's what he says, personally I think he's talking bull. How's Clarkson doing?'

'He's still working on it, but hasn't found anything yet,' Pepper said, frowning at her laptop screen. 'Is that all the bad news?' she asked, getting the feeling there was more.

'I'm afraid it isn't,' Fury said, clarifying her beliefs. 'Sergot also said that the drug would cause heart failure in a matter of hours and would kill them. He also said that in Tony Stark's case, because of the Arc, he'd probably suffer the worst.'

Pepper paled and squeezed Tony's hand.

'They're already showing signs of it, sir,' one of the medics said, checking Natasha's blood pressure. 'Their heart rate and blood pressure are both on the unhealthy side of low, it would explain the blue tinge to their lips as well. Someone help me, we need oxygen masks on all of them, 15 litres of oxygen to start with.'

Two other medics rushed over and attached oxygen masks to their fallen team's faces. Pepper carried on stroking Tony's hair. He'd told her when he was sick once that it relaxed him and calmed him down.

Fury decided not to mention the nightmare part Sergot had told him about. Pepper was already stressed and he didn't want to worry her more.

'I need them hooked up to IV fluid,' the medic said. 'That should help to raise their blood pressure slightly. Someone find me a ECG machine.'

The team scrambled to do his bidding and Pepper called Clarkson and asked for an update.

'_We've analysed the device, Miss Potts,' _he told her. _'And it's been programmed to cause instant brain death if the device is removed. We're still trying to find a way to remove it, I'm sorry I can't be more positive.'_

Pepper took a deep breath. 'It's okay,' she said. 'I know you're trying your best, but we only have a few hours before the drug it's administering causes heart failure.'

There was a pause, and then: _'You can count on us, Miss Potts. We'll think of something.'_

'Thank you, Mr Clarkson,' Pepper said, closing her eyes and hanging up. She shook her head at Fury and Agent Hill lightly touched her on the shoulder in an unspoken sign of comfort.

Tony moaned and his eyes flickered slightly. Then the heart monitor alarm went off.

**XxXxXxX**

'Come on Tony, stay with me,' Natasha said, shaking her teammate's shoulders.

She'd turned the radio off for now, as she was becoming increasingly annoyed with the worried voices in her ear, she needed to concentrate.

'Tony, look at me,' Natasha ordered him.

Tony's eyes found hers but they were dull and unfocused, and kept rolling back in their sockets, his skin had also gone a worrying shade of grey and his lips were turning blue. 'My chest,' he moaned, clutching at it.

'Is it the Arc?' Natasha asked.

Tony nodded and flopped back against the wall. Natasha supported him and pulled his shirt up to get a good look at the Arc, which was turning from its reassuring warm blue to a worrying shade of green.

'My chest… hurts…' Tony wheezed. 'I can't… breathe…'

'Tony, listen to me,' Natasha said, pulling his top back down and slapping him again to get his attention. 'You are going to be fine, if you die on me, I will bring you back from the dead just so I can kill you myself. Now come on! You're a genius, you can get us out of this. You said you could hear JARVIS, can you hear what's going on outside of this quarantine?'

Tony shook himself and tried to get himself together. 'I think so,' he mumbled. 'I heard… something about a compound we were being injected with.'

'On the back of our necks,' Natasha said, trying to keep him awake and talking.

Tony nodded weakly. 'Something in it is affecting the Arc,' he said. 'It's reacting with the element.'

Natasha nodded. 'Okay,' she said. 'Just lie back and relax, but stay awake, we need you, okay?'

Tony nodded, making a visible effort to keep his eyes open and Natasha squeezed his arm reassuringly, then turned the radio back on, where her teammates were going nuts.

'Guys, shut up and listen,' she told them. 'We have a problem. Tony says he can hear what's going on outside the quarantine, he says he heard JARVIS tell someone that there's something on the back of our necks injecting us with some kind of drug. But the drug is reacting with the Arc and making him worse.'

'_How is he now?' _Bruce asked.

Natasha looked over at her teammate, who was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily and clutching his chest. He looked up at her and she saw his eyes were bright and determined.

'He's awake, but in a bad way. He said his chest hurt and he couldn't breathe. We need to get out of this,' Natasha said.

'_Keep him upright, that'll keep his air way open,' _Bruce said.

'_If he can hear what's going on does that mean he could wake up?' _Clint asked.

'_He _is right here,' Tony said, sounding a bit better, though still wheezing slightly. 'And no I can't, it's not even partial awareness, I just heard JARVIS.'

'_What the hell is JARVIS doing on the helicarrier?' _Bruce pointed out.

Tony considered, then grinned suddenly. 'JARVIS is installed on Pepper's phone,' he said.

'_So Pepper's on the helicarrier? I thought you had a board meeting in NY?' _Clint said.

'She must have come looking for me when I didn't turn up,' Tony said.

'I love that woman,' Natasha said, grinning.

'_So we're relying on Pepper? That's just peachy,'_ Clint said.

They all knew he wasn't being sarcastic because they all knew Pepper would bend Heaven and Earth to save Tony.

'_I guess we wait,' _Bruce said.

**XxXxXxX**

'He's stabilised,' the medic said, looking down at Tony, confused. 'I don't understand how though. His heart was going crazy and suddenly…'

'Sergot mentioned that the team were separated into two,' Fury said, suddenly coming up with an idea. 'I'm guessing that whoever he's with calmed him down enough to relax.'

'And I'm guessing he's with Agent Romanoff,' Pepper said, looking over at Natasha, who's unconscious face had contorted turned into itself a look of concern.

'Then you don't have to worry,' Agent Hill said. 'Natasha will keep him calm even if it means knocking him out.'

'I know,' Pepper said. She looked down at Tony again who was lying still, and looking paler. 'I just hope it doesn't come to that.'

* * *

_Please review! And thank you so so much to everyone that has, I do try to reply to all my reviews to say thanks._


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4! Hope you like it :) I have been pestered and pestered to get some Afghanistan going in this so here you go, hope you enjoy. _

_Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! You brightened up my day :) Keep 'em coming!_

* * *

Tony was sat on the floor, not saying anything, staring at the chains on his wrists as if he could break them with sheer power of will. So far though it wasn't working.

Natasha was watching him closely out of the corner of one eye while she chatted to Clint. She could practically see his mind ticking over and over, trying to think of an escape, but she was also worrying with how shallow and laboured his breathing had become. Come to think of it, she wasn't feeling so good either, her lungs felt like they weren't getting enough air and her heart seemed to be slowing.

'Guys, how are you all feeling?' she asked over her comm. Tony raised his head at her quizzically.

'_I'm feeling a bit shit to be honest, Nat,' _Clint said. _'I'm starting to feel a bit whoozy.'_

'_That goes for me too,' _Bruce said. _'I've just checked mine and Steve's pulse, they're both low, even Steve with his super soldier thing going on.'_

Natasha looked at Tony and raised an eyebrow. 'There's something you remember that you're not telling us, isn't there,' she said, a statement not a question.

'I was hoping it would only affect me,' Tony said, looking at her. 'But obviously not.'

'_What's happening to us, Man of Iron?' _Thor said. _'Even I am starting to feel… not myself.'_

'I think it's better if you don't know,' Tony said, frowning.

'_Don't say that!' _Clint exclaimed. _'I want to know what I'm going to die of.'_

Tony looked at Natasha and she nodded.

'Sergot mentioned that the drug would cause…' he paused and took a deep breath. 'It said it would cause heart failure and ultimately death within a few hours. It said it was _humane._' Tony spat out the last word and he heard Clint growl on the other end of the comm.

'_Then why are you reacting worse?' _Steve asked. _'Because of the Arc?'_

'Partly,' Tony said. 'Whatever the drug is it's reacting with the element in the Arc Reactor, plus my ticker was a bit worse for wear anyway.'

'_How the hell is that humane?' _Bruce said, sounding furious.

'He's sick,' Natasha said. 'That man is completely sick, he's the one that should be locked in here.'

'_Thinking like that won't get us anywhere,' _Steve said, ever the voice of reason. _'Tony, how are you feeling now?'_

'Not as bad, but still pretty crap,' Tony informed him, tapping the Arc distractedly with one finger.

'_What do you think Pepper's doing to get us out of this?' _Clint asked.

'She's probably got the R&D lot at SI on the case,' Tony said. 'They're the best, I'm sure they'll think of something.'

'_As long as they think of something in time,' _Thor said.

No-one argued with that.

**XxXxXxX**

Ray Clarkson of the R&D department at Stark Industries was having a great time. Not only had his boss (well one of them) got him involved in a secret project, he was finally beginning to make some progress on the disks.

'What poor bugger do you think this has happened to?' Tom Manning asked, one of the tech guys.

'Miss Potts said that was classified,' Clarkson said, typing a few equations into the computer screen.

'You can't honestly say you're not thinking about it though,' Manning said, raising an eyebrow.

Clarkson grinned. 'Of course I am, you know me too well, Tom. But we only have a few hours Miss Potts said, so we need to work.'

'Yessir,' Manning said. 'But seriously, there's six people who have these disk things on them, and Mr Stark didn't turn up for the board meeting today.'

Clarkson gave him a look. 'Mr Stark never turns up for any board meetings,' he said. 'That's hardly a surprise.'

'But it's consistent with the facts,' Manning protested. 'Mr Stark missed a meeting, six people have been affected, and I didn't see Dr Banner wandering around this morning either. Plus, Miss Potts sounded really worried on the phone, and let's face it, she wouldn't be sounding worried for six complete strangers would she?'

Clarkson's voice dropped to a whisper. 'Are you saying it's the _Avengers _that have been affected?' he said.

'That's exactly what I'm saying,' Manning said.

'Well then,' Clarkson said, straightening up and moving over to the desk. 'That gives us even more incentive to work I'd say. Captain America saved my daughter that day, when those _creatures _came out of the sky. And we all saw the footage; Mr Stark was prepared to sacrifice himself by flying into space with a missile to save the rest of us, I'd say we owe them, don't you?'

'Yes we do,' Manning said, determined.

'Good,' Clarkson said. 'Now let's crack this thing open like an egg.'

'Nicely put, sir.'

'Thank you.'

**XxXxXxX**

Tony had passed out on Natasha's lap and she'd wrapped him up in her arms after he'd had a ten minute shivering fit. He'd finally stopped, but his skin was cold and clammy and when Natasha pressed her fingers against the pulse in his neck his heart was beating very slowly, and almost hesitantly, like it was worried about being told off for doing something wrong.

She could hear Bruce muttering something about brachycardia and hypotension in her ear, she knew what both phrases meant and didn't like either of them. Tony shivered again and Natasha curled her body around his in an attempt to keep him warm. He was barely breathing, and seemed to be drifting away in her arms.

'Tony,' Natasha said, softly, covering up her earpiece so the others couldn't hear.

Tony's eyes flickered but that was the only reaction she got. Natasha sighed and thought about how miserable Pepper would be if anything happened to Tony. No-one would miss her, unless Clint managed to survive, she had no family left and no friends apart from her teammates. Natasha could feel her own heart begin to beat a bit slower, not as slow as Tony's though.

_Stop moping, _she told herself firmly. _Your teammate is dying, and you need to help him._

But stuck in the cell, with bodies around her and her hands and feet in chains with an unconscious and ill teammate on her lap, Natasha had never felt so alone.

_Please wake up, Tony. Don't leave me on my own._

**XxXxXxX**

'Blood results are back,' the medic said, flicking through the screen to see the state of his teammates' cardiovascular system. He sighed heavily. 'It's not looking good,' he said. 'That drug has nearly completed infiltrated their system, it's been pumped through their heart a few times, it won't take much longer to corrode the arteries.'

'Is there anything we can do to slow the drug down?' Fury asked.

The medic shook his head. 'We can't even identify it, it's completely new,' he said.

Pepper was on the phone to Clarkson again. He'd just called saying he thought he'd found a way to get the disks off, but it still sounded incredibly risky and he couldn't promise that it wouldn't cause immediate brain death. Pepper hung up, looking slightly disheartened and explained what he'd told her.

'The nanobots?' Fury said, frowning. 'You mean the circular disk you used to open the blast door?'

'Yes,' Pepper clarified. 'Mr Clarkson theorises that, as the disks in their necks behave like a firewall, the same method we use to hack into them may be applied in this scenario.'

'He believes the nanobot will hack into the disk, preventing it from snapping the brain stem when removed,' Fury said, understanding.

'Precisely,' Pepper said. 'His theory is that the nanobot will shut down the disk completely, like it did with the blast door.'

'So we can stop the drug from being administered,' Maria said, feeling like she should be relieved, but the look on Pepper's face told her otherwise.

'The drug has already been administered,' Pepper said, looking miserable, but still determined. 'We assumed that it was being slowly released into the bloodstream when in fact, it was realising the drug all at once.'

'So what would removing the disks accomplish?' Maria asked. 'Would they start to wake up?'

'Mr Clarkson doesn't believe so,' Pepper said. 'He believes that this quarantine is actually inside the drug, sending signals up to the brain to make it seem real, the disk is the neuro-inhibitor, in this instance it's preventing the body from fighting the drug while it's being released, but since it's already in the body…'

Pepper tailed off and looked at Tony who, like his teammates, was turning cold under her fingertips, despite the medics covering them with blankets. 'Removing the disks wouldn't accomplish anything, the drug is already in their system,' Pepper said quietly, looking at her boyfriend's still, pale face. 'We've been going at this the wrong way round.'

'We should have been trying to find a way to counteract the drug, not finding a way to get the disks off,' Maria said, seeing her point.

Fury had had enough. 'Well it's all very well and good talking about things we _should _have done,' he announced, snapping them both out of their reverie. 'But I want to know what we're _going _to do.'

'I'm going to call the chemical research lab,' Pepper said, pulling her phone out. 'I'll send the copter back with a blood sample.'

'That will mean they'll be able to identify them,' Fury pointed out.

'Clarkson figured out who it was,' Pepper said, looking up at him. 'He didn't tell me he'd worked it out but he said "Avengers" a couple of times so I'm guessing he sussed it. Tony only hires the best, they're good at figuring these kinds of things out, but they're loyal. We can trust them.'

'We don't have a choice,' Maria said, calmly.

Fury looked from one to the other, knowing that somehow one of them would get that blood sample off the helicarrier whether he said so or not.

'Fine,' he agreed after a while. 'Miss Potts, I want you to go back to SI with the blood sample to ensure nothing happens to it, we'll have to send Tony's since he's reacting worse.'

'I'm not leaving him,' Pepper said. 'And I don't work for you so you can't tell me what to do.'

Fury gave her a look and Pepper glared at him, standing her ground.

'Fine,' Fury growled. 'Agent Hill?'

Maria nodded and squeezed Pepper's arm as she walked past. Pepper dialled the chemical research's lab's number and pressed the phone tightly against her ear, one hand still smoothing down Tony's forehead.

**XxXxXxX**

Water, so much water, surrounded by water.

Tony coughed and then choked as the icy, filthy water made its way up his nose and mouth and into his lungs. He spluttered, breathing in more water, and trying to wriggle out of his captors' strong arms, but couldn't. His lungs were on fire and his head and chest was aching.

His vision went black and he felt himself being pulled out of the bucket of water flung unceremoniously on the floor. There was a loud click, lots of heavy feet moving away and the sound of a bolt being drawn back from somewhere behind home. He felt someone pushing gently on his chest, encouraging him to cough all the water back up. He felt water flow out of his mouth and spluttered, feeling a lot like a dying fish. The same person rolled him gently onto his side and covered him with a blanket.

Tony opened his eyes slowly, his vision was still hazy and his lungs still felt like they were full of water, but at least he was breathing again. He noticed Yinsen sat on the floor beside him, watching him cautiously, in case he stopped breathing again.

'They will kill you if you keep refusing,' he told him.

'They'll kill a whole lot more people if I do it,' Tony told him, winching and trying to sit up, feeling like his throat was being rubbed with sandpaper.

Yinsen helped him to sit up, supporting him gently with one arm as he coughed out all the water still in his lungs.

'You don't have to say "no",' Yinsen said, once Tony's coughing fit had subsided. 'Say yes, draw up plans, make it _look _like you're building the missile, keep yourself alive so you can get back to that Pepper of yours.'

Tony frowned, confused. 'Wait, how do you know about…?'

'You talk in your sleep, Stark,' Yinsen said.

'I do not!'

'You do, and on many occasions you've mentioned someone called "Pepper", I'm assuming you're not talking about the seasoning?' Yinsen smiled and raised an eyebrow at him.

Tony ignored him and limped his way over to his desk, sitting down heavily at it and pulling the car battery up onto the desk next to him.

'First of all,' he said, doodling on a piece of paper. 'I need a new heart.'

'What kind of new heart?' Yinsen asked, intrigued.

'The kind that doesn't require lugging a car battery around for the rest of my life,' Tony said, sketching out plans for a miniaturised Arc Reactor.

**XxXxXxX**

'_Will you stop muttering long sounding Latin names?' _Clint muttered at Bruce. _'You're making me feel queasy.'_

'It's the drug that's making you feel queasy,' Bruce said, trying to find a lock on the chains he could try and pick.

'_The Latin names aren't helping either,' _Clint protested. _'I'm trying not to think about the drug.'_

'How's Tony doing?' Steve asked Natasha, aiding Bruce in his effort to find a way to get the chains off.

'_He's still asleep,' _Natasha said. _'He keeps mumbling, it's very off-putting.'_

They'd all seen his flashback of having his head dunked underwater in that cave, and Steve had been feeling guilty ever since. He'd thought that Tony was a stubborn stuck up rich boy who'd never done a day of hard work in his life the first time he'd met him, but now he was starting to realise that he'd had just as much trauma and heartbreak in his life that the rest of them had had.

'I'm not looking forward to seeing the rest of this Afghanistan flashback,' Bruce said to no-one in particular. 'I've heard Tony wake up screaming on more than one occasion.'

'And this time Pepper isn't here to calm him down,' Steve pointed out. 'No offence Natasha.'

'_None taken, I'll just knock him out,' _Natasha told them.

'_Good to know,' _Clint said.

'_I'm confused,' _Thor said, unsurprisingly. _'What is "Afghanistan"?'_

'It's a country,' Bruce told him. 'It's in the middle of a war zone. Tony was captured there a couple of years ago by a group of terrorists called 'The Ten Rings' when he was doing a weapons demonstration. They tried to make him build a missile but he refused, so they tortured him until he agreed to do it, as we've just seen.'

'_Except he built a robot suit instead and blew that joint,'_ Clint said, a tad enthusiastically.

'_And at some point he had open heart surgery without anaesthetic,' _Natasha pointed out.

Steve winched and went green.

'_What happened to his heart?' _Thor asked. _'Why does he have that circle of light in his chest?'_

'He has shrapnel in his chest,' Bruce said. 'Tiny bits of metal which are the result of exploding missiles or projectiles in an explosion. Someone removed most of it, but not all of it and the remainder is trying to get into his heart, if it does, it will kill him. He built the miniaturised Arc Reactor in that cave to prevent the shrapnel from getting into his heart.'

Thor didn't understand all the long words, but he got the gist. Light = good, shrapnel = bad.

'_So what was that "car battery" he had attached to him?' _Thor asked.

'He had an electromagnet powered by a car battery in his chest first,' Bruce explained, giving up with his chains when he realised that there physically wasn't a way to get them off, there was no locks, no lose links, nothing.

'_And the Arc has stopped working?' _Clint asked, remembering Tony mention to Natasha his chest was hurting.

'_I don't know, the light has gone from blue to green,' _Natasha's voice responded in their ears. _'There's no way of telling if it isn't working in here.'_

'If blood starts coming out his mouth, that'll be a hint,' Bruce told her.

'_I'll keep an eye out,' _Natasha assured him.

'How do you know all this?' Steve asked, frowning. 'I've never heard him talk about it.'

'Pepper told me,' Bruce said. 'Although Tony told me about the shrapnel.'

'How did you know about the… torture?' Steve asked.

Bruce gave him a look. 'I work in the same lab as he does,' he said. 'And he's fallen asleep at his desk more times than I can count and each time he wakes up he wakes up screaming. The only explanation I have for that is that he has a mild case of post traumatic stress which, as the name suggests, is brought on by trauma. In a cave, surrounded by terrorists, forced to build a missile? Most likely he was tortured. Turns out I was right.'

'When we get out of this I am going to have a long conversation with him,' Steve said, looking annoyed that he didn't know about any of this.

'_He won't talk about it,' _Natasha said. _'If I were you I'd talk to Pepper first, see if she can convince him to open up.'_

'Duly noted,' Steve said.

'_He won't though,' _Natasha added as an afterthought.

**XxXxXxX**

Tony had nearly finished the Arc when he stumbled and nearly smacked his head on the table. Blood was rushing in his ears and he felt Yinsen gently lay him down on the ground.

'You need to rest, Stark,' he heard him say. 'You've been working at this for far too long, your body can't handle it.'

Tony blinked blearily up at him from his vantage point on the floor. 'I can't… stop…' he mumbled. 'I need… to… finish.'

Tony closed his eyes again and tried to ignore the slow, slow beats of his heart in his chest.

So slow.

He felt so cold, and weary, maybe he should just sleep, that would make him feel better. Tony Stark felt his mind gently begin to drift away and his heart began to beat even slower, so slow he thought… it might… stop…

_Pepper._

Then he felt a sudden painful slap across the face that made his ears ring and when his eyes flew open he saw Yinsen looking angrily at him.

'I don't believe I told you that dying was an option,' he told him, and pulled him to his feet, sitting him down at the desk. 'If that's how you react when I recommend you take a break then I want you to finish this first, you can sleep later.'

Tony rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, picked up the soldering iron, and got to work, thinking about the lovely Malibu sun, the sparkling water, and his personal assistant's beautiful red hair.

* * *

_Please review!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5 for all of you! Hope you enjoy it :) I've had lots of requests from all of you asking me if the team can dream certain things, I am working my way through all of them :)_

_Please review!_

* * *

Strapped down in the chair, Bruce winked at Betty who was stood behind the safety glass. She looked at him concerned, but gave him a small smile.

'Okay, we're ready to begin,' one of the technicians said, finishing programming in the last algorithm into the computer. 'Dr Banner?'

'Go for it,' Bruce said, giving Betty one last smile then closing his eyes and relaxing as he felt the needle prick his skin and the formula enter his bloodstream. The formula that he hoped held the key to the super solider program which had been disbanded back in the 1940's, after Dr Erskine was murdered by Hydra.

After that, everything went very green.

_Too much gamma radiation? Was the formula wrong? Was my math wrong?_

Bruce didn't remember much after the gamma exposure, he only remembered standing over what was left of the lab, and Betty Ross' body, blood seeping from the wound on her head.

He opened his mouth and roared.

**XxXxXxX**

Bruce jerked awake and took a few deep breaths. He closed his eyes tightly and when he opened them again he was pleased to see Steve fast asleep on his back, one arm thrown over his chest. He didn't want him to see how his 'Hulk' dreams affected him, because they weren't just dreams, they were very vivid, very violent memories.

'I hate this,' Bruce said, clenching his fists and banging his head against the wall, jerking angrily against his chains. The other guy stirred in his subconscious and Bruce stopped and tried to empty his head of thoughts.

'_We all do,' _a thought in his head told him.

Bruce started, forgetting he was still wearing his comm.

'_Betty's okay,' _Natasha said softly, who'd been the only one to see Bruce's dream so far, the others were all asleep, the drug beginning to take its toll. She'd been determined to stay awake so she could keep an eye on Tony.

Bruce closed his eyes and leant back against the wall. _'I know,'_ he said. '_I feel like it's warming up to the really bad ones. How's Tony?'_

Natasha looked down at her teammate, unable to keep the worry from her face. She'd been cradling him in her arms as if he was a tiny child, talking to him occasionally, trying to wake him up, but he just lay there, limp, face as white as a sheet, heart beat so slow it may as well not be pumping for all the good it was doing him.

Natasha pushed Tony's hair awake from his forehead and sighed. 'He's not good,' she said. 'He's not good at all, he's completely unresponsive and his breathing has dropped down to six breaths a minute.'

Bruce clenched his fists, worried for his friend. 'You're right,' he said. 'That really isn't good.'

'_Bruce…' _Natasha said softly. _'I need to know, how long does he have?'_

'I don't want to think about that,' Bruce said. The other guy projected a picture into his mind, of him roaring down at his unconscious teammate after he'd fallen from the sky. The thought was clear, Hulk was worried. Bruce chuckled to himself, he hadn't thought the Hulk worried about anyone, but since he'd joined the Avengers, he'd been showing compassion for his team, he adored Pepper which Tony was secretly glad of, he liked the thought of the love of his life having a big green bodyguard.

'_What's so funny?' _Natasha asked.

'The other guy is worried about Tony,' Bruce said, playing with his shoelaces. 'I don't know why, I just find it amusing.'

'He probably heard your conversation in the lab,'Natasha said, stroking back Tony's hair and murmuring smoothly to him in Russian when he started to mumble and shake. 'As far as Hulk is concerned, Tony is the only one who believed in him.'

'_I never considered that,' _Bruce said, thoughtfully.

'You need to tell me what to do, Tony is really bad and if he dies Pepper will kill me,' Natasha said as Tony dropped back lifeless in her arms.

'_Is he still breathing?' _Bruce asked, worried.

Natasha held her ear gently over his mouth and felt the soft reassuring breath against her face.

'Barely,' she told him. 'How long does he have?'

'_Natasha…'_

'How long, Bruce?'

Bruce looked sadly over at Steve who was still asleep, and had no idea of how ill his teammate was.

'If the Arc stops working and he goes into cardiac arrest, then there's nothing any of us can do to save him,' Bruce said eventually, trying to relax as he felt his heart beat crazily against his ribcage. The calmer he was, the longer it would take for the drug to make its way around his body and stop his heart from beating.

'_How long?' _Natasha repeated her question.

Bruce closed his eyes and felt the other guy's concern deep in his mind. Hulk wanted him to save the metal man, _now. _

'I doubt he'll last the hour,'Bruce said.

Natasha pulled her comm out of her ear and set in on the floor next to her, then she gently lifted Tony more securely onto her lap and softly sang him a lullaby in Russian, one arm around his waist, the other supporting his head.

Bruce decided not to mention that, without the others chatting away and bickering inside his head, he could hear her.

**XxXxXxX**

On the helicarrier, sunset was approaching, but the medical team were still running around trying to save Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Said heroes were looking worse for wear, each of them was hooked up to a heart monitor, which wasn't showing any promising results, and bag after bag of IV fluid was being put up in an effort to keep their blood pressure on the safe side.

'Stark has gotten worse,' Doctor Penlock said softly to Fury. 'He isn't going to last for much longer, I doubt very much if he'll still be here in the next hour.' Doctor Penlock was the best cardio doctor on the eastern seaboard. After they'd discovered the effect the drug was having on his team, Fury had called him in as a matter of 'the utmost urgency and extreme delicacy.'

'How about the rest of them?' Fury asked.

'It's difficult to say,' Penlock said. 'Sometimes it looks bad, but then their vitals go back up, it's almost as if they're encouraging each other to stay alive. But Stark… I fear it may be too late for him.'

Fury looked over at Pepper, who was sat on Tony's bed next to him, refusing to leave him even for a second. Tony even had his head tilted towards her, like he knew she was there. Fury turned his gaze to Agent Romanoff, whose unconscious face looked sad and concerned and even, although she would never admit it, slightly defeated.

'I'll talk to Ms Potts,' Fury told him. The doctor nodded and moved away to check Thor's vitals.

'Ms Potts?' Fury said, standing beside her.

Pepper looked up at him, one hand had a gentle grip on Tony's bicep, the other was reviewing the notes the chemical research lab had sent her.

'Any progress?' Fury asked, looking over her shoulder at them.

'They've isolated the drug from the blood sample Agent Hill sent over,' Pepper said. 'They're examining it to try and find a cure. Nothing yet though, but they seem optimistic.'

Fury nodded and cringed inwardly. He'd never been one for breaking bad news, especially to friends and relatives, he left that to SHIELD counsellors and other agents.

'I've just spoken with Doctor Penlock,' he said, trying to keep his tone calm and quiet so the others in the room couldn't hear.

Pepper froze and looked down at her boyfriend's face, squeezing his arm tightly.

'And?' she asked, part of her already knowing the answer.

Fury sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. 'He's gotten a lot worse,' he said. 'He's deteriorating much faster than the others, he isn't going to last for much longer.'

Pepper held back her tears and stroked Tony's face gently, gazing at him sadly.

'How long does he have?' she asked.

'Less than an hour,' Fury said softly.

Pepper nodded slowly. 'Okay,' she said. 'So we have an hour to save him, I'll let the research lab know. How about the others?'

'Up and down,' Fury told her. He was impressed with how Pepper was taking it, but then anyone who had managed to put up with Tony Stark for ten years had to be made of stern stuff.

'Okay,' Pepper said, dialling the research lab's number and telling them that if they found a cure in the next hour she would double their pay for that month and send them and their families on holiday to Hawaii. It wasn't fair on the rest of the staff, but it gave them an incentive to work quicker, especially considering they should have finished for the day and gone home a few hours previously.

Once she was sure there was no-one behind her listening in, Pepper dropped her lips down to Tony's ear.

'Don't you _dare _die,' she told him. 'I did not work for you for _ten years, _trying to ignore your advances and hiding my feelings for you so you could die on me the _second _we become a couple. Don't prove my mom right, you _are _good for me and god_damnit _Tony Stark, I love you. You can't die, do you hear me? You can't, I need you, I want to spend the rest of my days with you, I want to have a family with you, I need you by my side.' Pepper could no longer contain the tears that were trailing down her face and she lifted his oxygen mask from his face and pressed her mouth gently against her boyfriend's frozen lips in a simple, but passionate, kiss. 'Don't leave me, Tony,' she whispered. 'Don't die, you can't die, you're _invincible.' _

**XxXxXxX**

Tony stirred in Natasha's arms and groaned. 'Pepper?' he whispered, eyes still closed.

'Tony?' Natasha said, staring at him.

'_What's happening, is he alright?' _Bruce's voice said hurriedly in her ear.

Natasha gaped at him and checked his pulse again. 'His pulse has gone up, only slightly mind, and his breathing is a bit better,' she said, shocked.

'_Is he awake?' _Bruce asked, trying not to get his hopes up.

'I don't know,' Natasha said. 'He said "Pepper" but that was it.'

She listened to his soft breathing. Some more of his colour had come back, he wasn't the scary pale he had been a moment before and his breathing had evened out and was more relaxed and less forced.

'I think… I think he's only asleep,' Natasha said, smiling despite herself. 'He seems a lot better.'

'_Good,' _Bruce said, breathing out a sigh of relief. _'But we're not out the woods yet, let's just hope he does wake up. If he does show signs of coming back to us talk to him, keep him focused.'_

'Got it,' Natasha said, keeping her fingers pressed against his pulse where she could feel the steady, slow beat of his heart against her fingers.

'Pepper…' Tony mumbled again. 'Love… you… too…'

'I think Pepper is keeping him going,' Natasha said softly.

'_I love that woman,' _Bruce said in her ear.

**XxXxXxX**

Clint carried his partner in his arms carefully through the silent city streets, sticking to the back alleys to avoid being seen. He could feel her blood staining his shirt and he picked up the pace, half jogging half running, comforted with the knowledge that the safe home was only a few more metres away.

Once inside, Clint balanced Natasha on one arm and securely locked the door with the other. He carried her carefully upstairs and laid her down gently on his bed, turning the bedside lamp on so he could see her better.

Long cuts made their way from the top of her head to her chin, not deep enough to scar but not particularly nice to look at either. Glass shards were still imbedded in her skin from where the blast had thrown her through the window and she was bleeding out from the bullet hole in her side.

Clint carefully unpeeled her from the top of her jumpsuit, apologising to her as she moaned when the fabric was peeled away from the bullet wound. Clint gently lifted the bottom of her vest to get a good look at it. The would was a through-and-through job, missing the vital organs and arteries but tearing through muscle. Clint gently applied pressure with one hand using his jacket and opened the first aid kit with the other. SHIELD had done a course on first aid while out in the field and Clint briefly left Natasha's side so he could carefully wash his hands to prevent the risk of infection.

When he returned, Natasha was half awake and was frowning at him through heavily lidded half-opened eyes.

'Clint?' she croaked out. 'What's going on?'

'You were in an explosion, Nat,' Clint said softly, removing his jacket and carefully cleaning the wound, apologising again when she winched.

'Did we get him?' Natasha asked, referring to the target they'd been sent to take out who SHIELD had proved was selling nuclear missiles to countries they shouldn't be going to.

'Yeah we did,' Clint said, smiling at his partner. 'He took a pot shot at you first though, missed anything important but caught your side.'

'So that's what that dull ache is,' Natasha said jokingly.

'Don't make jokes,' Clint said, frowning at her. 'You could have been seriously hurt.'

'But I wasn't,' Natasha said, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tightly. 'I'm fine Clint, we're both fine.'

Clint gave her a look, and finished bandaging Natasha's wound.

'Have you called SHIELD to tell them what happened?' Natasha asked her partner.

'Not yet, I wanted to make sure you were okay first,' Clint said, looking at her.

'I'm fine,' Natasha said. 'Now call SHIELD, I want to go home.'

'You got it,' Clint said, pulling his radio out.

**XxXxXxX**

'There's no time, I gotta put her in the water,' Steve said, steering the doomed aircraft towards the ice.

'_Please, don't do this,' _Peggy said. _'W-we have time. We can work it out.'_

Steve could hear the fear and sadness in her voice but tried not to let his worry show in his tone.

'Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere,' Steve told her, staring out the window at the cold, frozen sea below him. 'If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die. Peggy, this is my choice.' Steve closed his eyes for a moment and kept the tears that were threatening to spill over in his eyes, he didn't want Peggy knowing how scared he was.

Steve propped up the picture of her he kept in his compass up against the controls of the plane, staring at her beautiful face, determined it would be the last thing he'd see. _It's not fair, _he thought to himself, bitterly. _I finally meet someone I connect with and I lose her almost immediately._

'Peggy?' he said. He didn't want to be alone, not now, he needed to hear her voice, he wanted it to be the last thing he'd ever hear.

'_I'm here,' _Peggy said. Steve could hear the tears in her voice.

'I'm gonna need a rain check on that dance,' Steve said, staring at her picture again.

'_All right,' _Peggy said softly. _'A week next Saturday at the Stork Club.'_

'You've got it,' Steve told her.

'_Eight o'clock on the dot,' _Peggy told him. _'Don't you dare be late. Understood?'_

'You know, I still don't know how to dance,' Steve said, trying to convince himself that he would be there, that he would make this, that he wouldn't stand her up.

'_I'll show you how, just be there,' _Peggy said, and Steve could hear the plea in her voice.

'We'll have the band play something slow,' Steve said softly. The plane was directly above the water now, just a few more metres. Steve look one more look at Peggy's face and closed his eyes, keeping that image reflected in his mind and the water came up, big, blue, and dangerous.

'I'd hate to step on your…'

**XxXxXxX**

Clint was trying to pull his chains apart when Thor woke up. He was started to feel sick, he felt like there wasn't enough air getting into his lungs and his head was spinning.

True to his promise, Thor didn't mention Clint's dream, and instead decided to try smashing Mjolnir against the chains in the hope of breaking them.

'This is a dream state,' Clint reminded him. 'Weapons don't have the same effect in dreams.'

'I had hoped that since Mjolnir is from another world it would not be affected,' Thor said, frowning at his hammer.

'Tasha, how's Tony doing?' Steve asked, closing his eyes and trying to calm his pounding heart, the memory of losing Peggy still fresh in his mind.

There was a pause from the end of the comm, Natasha remembered that mission, but didn't realise that Clint had carried her to the safe house, she'd assumed he'd stolen a car from somewhere.

'_Tasha?' _Clint asked in her ear.

'Um… he's still unconscious, but he's not as bad,' Natasha told him, checking Tony's pulse one more time to check he hadn't died when she'd been caught in Clint and Steve's flashback.

Tony stirred and opened an eye slightly. 'Wassat you singing?' he asked blearily.

'I will deny it to the others,' Natasha hissed at him.

'Got it,' Tony said, closing his eye, then opening it again almost immediately. 'Why am I in your lap?'

'Because you were cold,' Natasha told him.

'_I'm guessing he's awake?' _Clint said.

'Unfortunately yes he is,' Natasha said, managing to cover up the fact that she was secretly glad he was awake and looking a bit more with it.

'_Tony? How you feeling buddy?' _Bruce asked.

Natasha pulled the comm out her ear and turned the volume up so he could hear.

'I feel shit,' Tony said. 'But Natasha is nice and warm.'

'_Don't want to know,' _Clint informed them.

Natasha considered dumping Tony onto the floor, but he still felt quite cold and was still out of it, so she decided to ignore the quip and kept him safely tucked up on her lap.

'I heard Pepper,' Tony said, looking up at her with his big soulful brown eyes.

'Good,' Natasha said, patting him on the shoulder. 'I think she brought you back from the dead.'

Tony frowned. 'I was dead?' he asked, confused.

'_Very nearly,' _Bruce told him. _'Natasha even sounded worried.'_

'I didn't fancy the thought of being stuck here on my own in the dark with a corpse and only your inbuilt night light to keep me company,' Natasha informed him.

Tony screwed his face up at the thought.

'_Thanks for that pleasant thought,' _Steve said.

* * *

_Please review! I try to answer all of them :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6! I am back at University so I apologise if there is a longer wait between chapters, but I have a surprising amount of time off for the next few weeks so hopefully that won't be an issue. Someone wanted me to include drunk!Howard, I can't remember who, but here you go :)_

_Please review! I try to answer all of them, if I haven't answered yours I apologise, but inbetween learning how to be a fantastic nurse and trying not to set the oven on fire sometimes a few sneak through my inbox._

_No seriously, it's a gas oven, I'm 19 years old and have never seen one before, it's frightening._

* * *

'ANTHONY!'

Tony leapt off his bed and dove under it, sending blueprints and textbooks flying everywhere. He held his breath and tried not to make a sound as his father crashed into his room, reeking of alcohol, his mother following close behind.

'Where are you?' Howard yelled, throwing all of his son's work off his bed angrily.

'Howard! He obviously isn't here,' Maria said, trying to calm her husband down. 'Now come back downstairs, Obadiah called earlier, you need to call him back.'

'This doesn't concern you!' Howard snapped at her. 'Tony get out now.'

Tony stayed stock still under the bed, not moving a muscle and trying to control his breathing.

Howard growled. 'You'll regret this,' he said, then stalked out, crashing into the furniture.

Maria followed him, but turned back in the doorway and looked at the darkness under the bed.

'Don't worry,' she said to no-one in particular. 'I'll calm him down, keep it quiet for a bit though.'

She closed his bedroom door and Tony crawled out from underneath, covered in dust and clutching a book he'd thought he'd lost months ago and had just found under a pile of old socks. He looked down at the ground, at all of his schoolwork strewn across the carpet, the robot components he'd spent hours drawing up on blueprints and writing scientific equations for.

Tony carefully and quietly gathered all the papers up, organising it back so the page numbers were in sequence. He grabbed his torch, pencils, a snack bar and his headphones, and climbed into his wardrobe, making a pillow for himself out of his t-shirts and hanging the torch up on the rail so he had light to work. He knew better than to face his father when he was drunk, he still had the marks on his arm from where he'd grabbed him roughly a few days okay and a bruise on his face from where he'd slapped him. Tony turned up Queen and drowned out the world.

A couple of hours later, Maria knocked lightly on the door and came into the room, a pizza in her hand.

'I got Jarvis to get your favourite from that takeaway place you like,' Maria said, closing the door and sitting on her son's bed, looking expectantly at the wardrobe. She'd raised that boy for 14 years and knew exactly where he liked to hide when his father was drunk.

Tony clambered out, laying his designs down on the desk and joining his mother, lifting up the lid of the pizza box and sniffing happily.

Maria smiled and took a slice, watching her son as he scoffed most of it in under 30 seconds.

'You know,' she said. 'I can't tell if you're eating that pizza, or inhaling it.'

Tony grinned and swallowed. 'Combination of both,' he said.

Maria chuckled, but her smile quickly faded and she gently raised a hand to Tony's face and stroked the bruise on his cheek.

'Does it hurt?' she asked, softly.

Tony shook his head. 'No, not anymore,' he said, suddenly becoming quiet.

Maria sighed and looked down at the nearly empty pizza box. 'He was angry because you'd spilt a bottle of motor oil all over the Arc blueprints,' she said softly.

Tony frowned. 'I didn't spill anything,' he said. 'I haven't been down to the shop today, I was working on my robot designs.'

Maria looked up at him. 'We both know it was probably your father that did it when he was drunk, and then forgot it was him and decided to blame it on you,' she said, sighing.

'Is he still mad?' Tony asked, looking at her worried.

'No,' Maria said. 'But he's also passed out on the sofa so he'll probably wake up with no recollection of how he got there.'

Tony grinned and his mother kissed his forehead.

'It's nearly 11 o'clock,' she told him. 'Go to bed and I'll make pancakes for breakfast.'

'Yay!' Tony said, grinning excitedly. The only thing he loved more than robots was pancakes.

Maria laughed and hugged her only child. 'I love you,' she said. 'So much.'

'Love you too, mom,' Tony said, grinning happily.

'I'll see you tomorrow,' Maria said, standing up and opening the door. 'Now go to bed.'

'Yes, mom,' Tony said.

'Night, night, Tony,' Maria said, blowing him a kiss and closing the door behind her.

**XxXxXxX**

'LOKI!'

Thor was woken up in the middle of the night by his brother bursting into his room, slamming the door quickly closed behind him and hurling himself under the bed.

'Um… Loki?' Thor asked, confused.

'Sssssh!' Loki's voice came up from under the bed. 'Mother's mad at me because I ripped her curtains.'

'_Again?'_

'Sssssh, Thor!'

Thor had barely enough time to hide under the blanket and pretend he was still asleep when his mother flung the door open and stood in the doorway, hands on her hips.

'Thor, I know very well you're awake, you're not snoring,' she accused him.

'I don't snore!' Thor protested, sitting up and staring, shocked, at his mother.

'Yes, you do,' she told him. 'Very loudly too. Loki, I know you're under the bed, get out now or no riding lessons for you tomorrow.'

Slowly and grudgingly, Loki pulled himself out from under his brother's bed, looking sheepish. He loved riding lessons, it was the one thing his mother could use in blackmail against him.

Frigga observed her two young sons. Thor, who had a look of confusion written all over his face, and Loki, who was looking at the ground and shuffling his feet.

'Well?' she asked him, raising an eyebrow.

'Sorry, mother,' Loki said, at least having the decency to look guilty.

Frigga sighed. 'They were my favourite red curtains too,' she told him. 'But never mind, I've been meaning to make Thor a new cloak, he's always dragging it in the mud.'

Now it was Thor's turn to look guilty.

'Will you tell us a story, mother?' Loki asked, hopefully. Thor nodded enthusiastically with wide bright eyes.

Frigga smiled. She could never stay cross at her boys for long, they were only children after all.

'Alright,' she said, lifting Loki onto his brother's bed and sitting on the edge of it, lighting a candle. Loki immediately scurried under the blanket and lay down next to Thor, peering up at her expectantly.

Frigga's tales were always about two brothers, both born to be kings, kind and strong and loved by everyone. She knew the stories that her sons liked best.

'Tell us about the dragons that used to fly in the sky,' Loki said, wistfully. 'I like to hear about them.'

'The dragons?' Frigga smiled. 'They were terrifying, huge, with massive scales and sharp teeth. They breathed fire and terrified the humans below.'

'Tell us about the brothers!' Thor said, excitedly.

'Your father decided to send warriors to slay the dragons, as they were killing the humans and the livestock on Midgard,' Frigga said. 'They captured what they thought was the last one and wounded it so it could not fly, but it still tried to crawl away from the advancing army.'

'And its brother came and saved it!' Thor said, clapping his hands together.

'Thor! Don't tell the story,' Loki told him, then looked back at his mother. 'Then what happened?' he asked.

'You both know what happened,' Frigga said. 'Your father raised his sword to deliver the final blow and kill the last dragon, when with a great burst of flame and the rush of wings, its brother came out of the sky, lifted it up, and carried it away to safety.'

The two boys' eyes were round as saucers as their mother concluded her tale.

'Are they still out there?' Loki asked.

'Yes,' Frigga said. 'Your father send out armies to capture and kill the two remaining dragons, but they were never found. They are still out there now, hiding among the world of humans, possibly never to be seen again.'

'I would save you,' Thor told his brother. 'If you were that dragon I would have come to rescue you.'

'Why do _you_ have to save _me?' _Loki asked. 'I could save you!'

Frigga laughed at her boys. 'Listen to me,' she said. 'You two share the deepest of bonds. You are brothers, you watch out for each other, you take care of each other, you protect each other. It doesn't matter which dragon you are, as long as you know that when the time comes, you take care of the other.'

'We will, mother,' Loki said, yawning sleepily.

'Good,' Frigga said. 'Now go to sleep. And remember, you and Thor are brothers. There is no bond stronger than this.'

'Yes mother,' Thor said, putting an arm around his younger brother protectively.

Frigga kissed their foreheads and pulled the blanket up around them, blowing out the candle and standing up, moving to the door.

'I love you both,' she said, softly.

'Love you too, mother,' she heard two sleepy boys whisper.

Frigga smiled and stepped out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

'You know I'll always take care of you, right Loki?' Thor asked.

'I know,' Loki said. 'Now ssh and go to sleep.'

**XxXxXxX**

Natasha said nothing as her teammates' memories flew through her mind. She barely had time to wake up from Tony's when they were both thrust into Thor's.

'So your cape really is made from your mother's drapes,' Tony murmured, eyes closed and dosing against Natasha's arm.

'_Yes,' _he heard Thor's voice say softly in his ear.

The team were all feeling awful, the sensation that they weren't getting enough air into their lungs was increasing and they were beginning to find that they were too tired to move, or talk to each other over the comm. Tony had started to feel better when he'd heard Pepper's voice telling him she loved him, but that feeling was fading as the minutes ticked on by, and he was now having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

Natasha had been talking to him to keep him awake whenever he woke up, but now she was beginning to feel the strain of the drug and was losing the energy to keep herself awake.

'That story, about the dragons, is that true?' Clint asked his silent companion.

'Yes, it is,' Thor said, looking at him. 'Dragons did once roam the earth, free to do what they pleased, until my father hunted them all down.'

'You sound resentful about that,' Clint said, frowning. 'If your dad hadn't killed them all, I doubt the human race would be here today.'

Thor sighed. 'Dragons were a noble breed,' he said. 'They were strong and loyal, they protected their own, and my father massacred them, he didn't try to make peace with them, he tried to destroy them because he saw them as dim and unintelligent.'

'_Whereas in reality, they were brainiacs?' _Tony asked.

'They were intelligent,' Thor said. 'They understood pain, and fear. They felt the urge to run away from something dangerous. I believe they could have been saved, we could have made peace with them. Those two brothers, they were never seen again, they have every right to fight back against those who destroyed their kind, but they didn't.'

'Thor…' Clint said. 'It sounds like you're angry about something other than the dragons.'

Thor looked down at his boots. 'My brother loved that story,' he said. 'Whenever one of us had nightmares, he would tell me that story, it was his favourite. But I can't help but feel that he would have made the connection with the weaker dragon, the one who needed to be rescued. I was the eldest, I was the strongest but Loki…' Thor sighed and looked at Clint. 'Loki was clever, he understood things better than I did. You didn't see, when I confronted him when he opened the portal, he looked afraid, he wasn't focused on his goal. When I took him back to Asgard he told me what the Chitauri had said to him, how they would hunt him down and torture him if he failed. He would have seen himself as the dragon that had to be rescued and protected from the army.'

'_And you were the brother that saved him,' _Steve said, surprising them all. After Tony's memory, he had been quiet, unable to believe that his friend could treat his son so badly.

'Yes I was,' Thor said, looking said. 'Loki resents that I have always been the strong one throughout our lives and he has been the weaker, the one that's been hiding in the shadow all his life. You see him as a threat that tried to destroy your city, someone that needs to be taken down. But I see him only as my brother, the games we played as children, the pranks we played on the guards.' Thor smiled sadly. 'It is as my mother said, there is no bond stronger than ours.'

The team were silent after they heard this. None of them wanted to believe that they had misjudged Loki, after all- he had tried to kill all of them at _least _once. But having seen the child he used to be, full of innocence, they could easily see Thor's point of view.

'Tony, wake up,' Natasha said, nudging her teammate, who was starting to drool on her arm.

'Huh? Wassat?' Tony said, blinking up at her through sleepy half lidded eyes.

'You need to stay awake,' Natasha said, softly. 'You need to fight the drug.'

'I know,' Tony said, shaking his head to wake himself up. 'But it's getting harder and harder to stay awake.'

**XxXxXxX**

The nanobots had done their job and the disks had been removed from the Avengers' necks. Not that is was doing them much good, they were still deteriorating and Pepper hadn't heard back from the research lab yet with results about the drug, but she was remaining optimistic and hadn't moved from the medical bay or Tony's side.

Fury was becoming more and more irritable that nothing positive was happening, and kept snapping at the staff, telling them to get a move on, not that there was anything they could do to prevent the inevitable. Without a cure, Earth's Mightiest Heroes would die.

Pepper blocked the thought from her mind and looked down at Tony, pushing back his sweaty forehead and rearranging the oxygen mask on his face so it sat better. He'd improved briefly, making the doctor change his original diagnosis of him dying in two hours, as opposed to one, but he'd deteriorated again in that time span and Pepper knew it was only a matter of time before his heart stopped beating.

Her phone rang and Pepper grabbed it and held it up to her ear, squeezing it so tightly she heard the casing squeak slightly.

'_Miss Potts?'_ one of the lab technicians said in her ear. _'We believe we've come up with an antidote for the drug, however it is risky and dangerous and there is a 50/50 chance it will stop the heart from beating.'_

'They aren't good odds,' Pepper said, running her hand across her face and pushing her hair out the way. 'Is there anyway you can improve them?'

'_I'm afraid not,' _the technician said. _'This drug… we don't understand it, with weeks of close analysis we could almost certainly come up with safe antidote but it the timespan you've given us…'_

Pepper sighed. 'Okay,' she said. 'And you don't think you can improve on that in the next hour?'

'_No, Miss Potts,' _the technician said, and Pepper could hear the apology in his voice.

'Well then,' Pepper said, trying to remain positive, after all, 50% was better than nothing. 'Would you kindly make up enough of the antidote for six people and give it to Agent Hill please?'

'_Certainly, Miss Potts,' _the technician said. Her request wasn't a surprise to him, there was a reason he was in charge of the lab. When the computer had positively identified the blood sample as belonging to one 'Stark, Anthony Edward,' and he'd received an interesting call from the R&D department, he knew something must be wrong with the Avengers, the penthouse had been unusually quiet that morning, there was always _something _up there making a loud noise, usually that archer crawling around in the vents.

Pepper hung up and turned to Fury. 'The lab guys have come up with an antidote,' she said. 'Agent Hill is bringing it back now.'

'You don't seem happy about that,' Fury said, frowning.

'50% chance of the antidote working, 50% chance of it causing their hearts to stop beating immediately,' Pepper said.

Fury muttered something rude under his breath. 'Well that's better than nothing,' he said. 'Doc!' he called out to Doctor Penlock. 'We've found a cure, 50/50 success rate.'

The doctor nodded, then whispered something to his colleague, obviously so Pepper couldn't hear, but she still caught it.

'Make sure we have defibrillators at every bedside.'

Pepper squeezed Tony's hand and kissed his forehead. 'Help is coming,' she told him reassuringly, not that she felt reassured herself.

**XxXxXxX**

'50/50,' Tony mumbled sleepily, still dozing against Natasha's arm.

Natasha felt almost completely out of it, she could feel her heart crawling along at a snail's pace and her head was spinning.

'What's 50/50?' she asked, her head leaning against Tony's, her eyes closed.

'Chances of the antidote working,' Tony murmured.

_That _snapped Natasha out of it.

'Wait, what? Antidote?' she said, sitting up and shaking him awake. 'What antidote?'

'What what? What? What's happening?' Tony said, blinking at her confused.

'_You said antidote, friend Stark,' _Thor said. _'What antidote?'_

'Uh, I don't remember,' Tony said. 'I don't remember anything about an antidote, what did I say?'

'_You said there was a 50% chance of the antidote working,' _Bruce told him. _'Does that mean they've come up with a cure? A way to get us out of this?'_

'_I hope so,' _Steve said. _'That skeleton is looking at me.'_

'_It's dead, Steve,' _Clint informed him.

'_Try telling it that.'_

'Great, so we have a 50% chance of survival,' Natasha said.

'I like those odds,' Tony said. 'I've certainly been faced with worse. 50% is good for me.'

'_What's the other 50%?' _Thor asked, not quite understanding percentages, it wasn't something he'd been taught at school on Asgard.

'50% survival, 50% death,' Natasha informed him.

There was a pause, and then:

'_Ah.'_

'_Well, it was nice knowing you all,' _Clint said, who obviously wasn't feeling optimistic at all.

'_Shut up, Clint,' _his teammates told him.

* * *

_Review if you want them to live! Mwhahaha :)_


	7. Chapter 7

_I humbly present, for your consideration, chapter 7 in all its whumpy tear-your-heart-out-and-leave-you-screaming-WHY-at-the-computer-screen glory, at least that's my intention ;)_

_And on that bombshell…_

_I am so so so so sorry if I didn't reply to your review but I got so many emails I missed LOADS. I will make it up to you I promise, but I have read them all and I love you all SO SO MUCH. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND I WILL MAKE YOU ALL CUPCAKES._

_Now I need to sleep cause it's 01:12 and I can feel my brain shutting down neuron by neuron, much like it did in the lecture I had today. SO BORING._

_Anyway, please review! :)_

* * *

Outside, night had fallen. The cold dark sky hung over the helicarrier like a inky cloak, the clouds casting eerie shadows on the water below. In the distance, the bright twinkling lights of New York could be seen, the Statue of Liberty holding her arm aloft as the city's guardian.

_Fat lot of good she'd be against Loki, _Pepper thought bitterly, keeping an ear out for the Quinjet that would carry the cure to save the man she loved. The man she loved currently wasn't doing too good, it was coming to the end of the doctor's two hour time limit and none of the Avengers were showing any sign of life at all, other than the weak beat of their hearts as they crept along at 45 beats a minute, or in Tony's case, 39. They were all still and pale, sweat standing out on their skin, their chests barely moving as they breathed in and out. The only noise they made was the hiss of the oxygen canisters as it supplied their lungs with the precious gas they were too tired to breath in themselves.

'Quinjet approaching,' one of the technicians said to Fury.

Pepper pressed her face against the glass window, watching as the jet made its way to the helicarrier, its bright lights the only way to see it in the dark sky. She looked down at Tony, and then at Natasha. It was clear they were both fighting it, instead of the usual peaceful expression Tony wore when he slept, his face was screwed up in determination, and Natasha was frowning at an invisible foe.

Pepper sat down next to Tony and rubbed her thumb gently against the back of his hand, watching his face for any sign of movement. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but it _looked _like Tony's face softened at her touch. Pepper gently planted a sweet kiss on his cheek, and laid her head on his chest, watching the bright light of the Arc and listening to the slow beat of his heart. When they'd first started sleeping together (in both senses), the Arc had been a problem, Pepper had never been any good at sleeping with the light on. At first, Tony had covered the Arc up by tying a sock onto it, but that had scared them both when they woke up in the middle of the night and its reassuring glow wasn't lighting up the room. Pepper wasn't sure when it happened, but now she couldn't sleep unless that beautiful blue was shining next to her, reassuring her that everything was fine, and Tony was there with her, safe.

Pepper gently traced its casing and placed her hand over it, feeling the vibrations from the humming sound it made.

'I love you,' Pepper whispered softly to her boyfriend. 'Please _please _don't leave me.'

Again, she wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but it _felt _like Tony had just gently squeezed her hand.

Pepper didn't have any time to try and gauge another reaction out of him though, because that was when Maria Hill decided to make her entrance, hand clasped tightly around a small phial filled with a strange blue liquid.

'About time,' Fury grunted, standing up from where he'd been shouting at Clint in an attempt to coax him awake, without the coaxing.

'The lab techs said Thor, Steve and Tony should get a larger dose than the others,' Maria informed him, handing the phial over to the doctor. 'He believes the effect on their heart rate and blood pressure should be instantaneous, but they may not wake up for another few hours.'

Pepper tried to ignore one of the SHIELD agents try to place a defibrillator sneakily behind Tony's head and then fail miserably when he knocked it off and it landed with a clang on the floor. Pepper simply squeezed Tony's hand and counted to ten, hopefully her nightmare, and the Avengers', would soon be over.

Dr Penlock finished drawing the drug up into six different syringes and handed them to the SHIELD medics. 'Did the SI lab say where they should be injected?' he asked Agent Hill.

'Straight into the heart,' Maria responded, trying to keep her tone even and hiding the emotion that was crawling its way up her throat and into her tear ducts.

Dr Penlock nodded and turned to the SHIELD medics, who were standing ready next to the Avengers, syringes uncapped and in position above their hearts.

'On three,' Dr Penlock said, standing next to the defib machine by Bruce's bed. 'One, two, _three.' _

All six medics pushed the needle into their team's hearts, Pepper trying to ignore the soft _squelch_ing noise it made as they did so. At first, there wasn't a reaction, and then, slowly, their heart rate began to creep back up, and colour began to appear in their skin. And for one _second, _Pepper dared to hope that everything was fine, she'd get Tony back, and life could continue as normal.

Then all hell broke loose.

**XxXxXxX**

Five year old Clint Barton was thrown forcefully across the kitchen table by his drunk father, who screamed at him about how much of a fuck-up he was, making the poor boy believe that it was _his _fault he wasn't old enough to go out and get a job, making him believe it was his fault his mother was always sick and Barney was never there.

In reality, his mother was always sick because she was a drug-user and was currently addicted to Heroin, killing herself every time she pushed the needle under her skin, and his older brother Barney wasn't there because he was working so he could save enough money to buy his little brother a new coat for the upcoming winter.

Clint curled up into a ball and sobbed, terrified and shaking, trying to crawl underneath the ruined table to hide himself from his father's blows as he punched his son repeatedly, ignoring the steady stream of blood flowing from his noise.

'You worthless _scum,' _he screamed at Clint. 'It's your fault your mother is always coughing! She's sick because she had to give birth to _you _and know has to look at your _pathetic _face every single fucking _day.' _

Clint sobbed harder and tried weakly to bring his arms up to his face to protect his eyes and nose, but drunk though his father was, he was still stronger than his tiny son, _much _stronger.

'Barney!' Clint screamed, closing his eyes and crying in pain, hoping his brother would come and save him soon.

**XxXxXxX**

Steve Rogers gently laid the damp washcloth across his mother's forehead, feeling the heat her skin was emitting under his hand.

'My boy,' his mother said, smiling weakly up at him. 'I'm so lucky to have you.'

'You'll be fine, mom,' Steve said, squeezing her hand and forcing back his tears, he didn't want to worry his mother in her weakened state. This was the worst she'd been so far, her skin was pale and while it felt clammy it also burned fiercely, the fever was making her delirious and she would call out for her husband, who had died a few years previously, a raging alcoholic who, in his rare lucid moments, would tell his son about his time behind the front lines before he was sent home after being shot in the leg, shattering the bone and leaving him a cripple. After that he'd never been the same, and would wake screaming in the night and would lash out at his wife and son.

'Of course I will be, darling,' she said softly, gazing adoringly up at him. 'I love you, Steven, so _so _much, you have made me so proud.' Then another violent coughing fit racked through her tiny thin frame, she closed her eyes, and knew no more.

Steve sat there, staring in shock for a full five minutes before he finally managed to whisper out a small 'mom?'

His mother said nothing and Steve started to panic.

'Mom?!' he cried, shaking his mother's shoulder. 'Mom, _please.' _

But his pleas and his tears were no use, and 18 year old Steve Rogers was left stood by his parents' tombstone a few days later, standing in the rain in his father's black suit, feeling more alone then he had ever felt in his life, his best friend at his side.

'What will you do now?' James 'Bucky' Barnes asked him.

'I'll get into the army,' Steve said, his hands clenched in fists, gazing fiercely at his mother's name engraved into the cold stone block below his father's. 'I'll make them proud.'

'They already are proud,' Bucky said gently. 'And the army have already said no,' Bucky frowned and stamped his feet on the mud to warm himself up.

'I'll think of something,' Steve promised, more to his parents and himself then his friend.

He began to walk away and Bucky fell into step beside him, but not before sending up a silent prayer to Heaven, a promise to Steve's parents that he'd keep him safe.

**XxXxXxX**

Clint was sat in the vent at the children's home, knees drawn up tightly against his chest, trying to keep his tears in as he waited for Barney to get back from school so he could protect him from the other boys teasing and taunting. It had been a few weeks since his parents had both died in a car accident, both hilariously over the limit and driving far too fast, and he and his brother had been moved to the children's home. Clint wasn't sure what was worse, being hated by his parents or being an orphan and having no parents. The other boys picked on him because of his small size and his tendency to hide away from all of them in the vents.

Below him, someone entered their dorm and Clint made himself very small and tried to quieten his breathing. The same person closed the door and immediately headed to the vent grating in the ceiling, gazing expectantly up at it.

'Come on, Clinton,' Barney said to his little brother, smiling up at the vent. 'I have an early Christmas present for you.'

Clint scrambled out of the vent and jumped down into his brother's strong arms below him, wrapping his arms around his neck. 'I missed you,' he mumbled into his brother's jacket.

'I missed you too,' Barney said, hugging his little brother back. 'Now come on, it's present time.'

Barney dropped his brother lightly on his bed and handed him a bag. 'Merry early Christmas,' he said, ruffling his hair.

Clint opened the bag and pulled out a soft blue duffel coat, it looked new and still had the tags on it. Clint stared, lovingly, at it. No longer would he have to wrap blankets around himself to keep warm, now he had a beautiful new coat to wear and show off to everyone.

'I love it,' Clint said, softly, stroking its warm fabric with one tiny hand. Then he frowned. 'Wait, where did you get it?'

Barney kissed his brother's forehead. 'Never you mind where I got it,' he said. 'The point is it's yours now. Make sure you wear it, I don't want you catching cold.'

Clint swallowed and looked worryingly up at his big brother. 'Did you steal it?' he asked quietly. 'Are you going to go to prison?' Suddenly, he launched into full-scale panic mode and jumped at his brother. 'Please don't go to prison!' he cried. 'Please don't leave me alone!'

'Clint,' Barney said softly, settling his brother on his lap where he burrowed into his t-shirt, still clutching his new coat with one hand, loathe to give it up even if it _was _stolen. 'I didn't steal the coat, it was given to me, I'm not going to prison.' Barney told him that he'd seen the coat hanging up in the shop window, and had been gazing at it, thinking about running in, grabbing it, and legging it out again. Fortunately, an elderly lady walking with her husband had seen him staring at it and had taken in his threading jacket with patches and his thin scarf. She'd pitied the poor boy shivering in the cold gazing at the beautiful, warm, coat in front of him and had insisted she buy it for him. When Barney had admitted he wanted it for his brother, she had bought a coat for him as well, saying she had two grandson's their ages and would hate to see them suffer through the cold winter without a decent coat.

'That was so lovely of her,' Clint said, pulling his coat on and hugging his brother.

'It was,' Barney said, then he lifted his brother's chin and forced him to look him in the eyes. 'Listen to me, Clinton,' he said, firmly. 'Life hasn't been good to us so far, we've had a rough start in life, but even the worst kind of people are capable of performing decent, selfless, acts. There are good people in this world, never forget that, promise me.'

'I promise,' Clint whispered.

'Good boy,' Barney said, ruffling his hair. 'Now let's go get some dinner before someone eats all the potatoes.'

**XxXxXxX**

'Shell shock,' Bruce said to Steve, lying on his back with one arm flung over his face, eyes closed, trying to encourage his lungs to do their job and fill his blood with precious oxygen to carry around his body.

'What?' Steve asked, blearily, gazing at the ceiling and ignoring the skeleton which he still believed was staring at him and was now starting to hallucinate about, probably due to the lack of oxygen supplying his brain.

'Shell shock,' Bruce repeated. 'That's the condition your father was suffering from. We'd call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder nowadays, but they didn't know that back in the war. It wasn't his fault, he didn't know what he was doing.'

Steve smiled despite their current situation. 'Thank you, Bruce,' he said, honestly. 'That's a massive weight off my mind, you have no idea.'

'No problem,' Bruce said, trying to focus his thoughts on Betty Ross, the woman he loved and had left behind to give her a chance at a normal life. He made a promise to himself that he'd call her the second he woke up. 'How you doing, Tony?'

Silence met his ears and Bruce swallowed his fear, trying to stop himself from imagining the worst: his best friend lying on the floor, chained and vulnerable, his Arc no longer glowing, his heart no longer beating.

Bruce gritted his teeth and tried again. 'Tony?' he asked. 'Natasha? Guys come in, _please.' _

But there was nothing, only static. Bruce wearily dragged his body into a seated position, ignoring the dizziness he felt and looking at Steve who was lying on his back with his eyes closed, breathing softly and slowly.

'Someone come in,' Bruce begged into his comm. 'Thor, Clint, Tony, Natasha, guys come on please answer.'

Nothing but static.

**XxXxXxX**

'Come on, we gotta go. Move with me, come on we've got a plan we need to stick to it.' Tony knew someone deep in his heart that there was no point, he knew that no matter what he said, or did, he couldn't save his… his… friend? Friend. Yinsen was his friend and he couldn't save him, he'd let him die, it was his fault.

Tony Stark had never hated himself as much as he did in that moment.

'This was always the plan, Stark,' Yinsen spluttered out to him, coughing up blood. Tony longed to lift him up and hold him in his arms, something he'd never wanted to do before. But part of him knew that if he did that still wearing the suit, he would do more harm then good. But god_damn_it he owed this man his life and he was fucked if he was going to leave him here to die alone.

'Come on, you gotta go see your family, get up,' Tony said, pleading with him, desperate. He wanted Yinsen to come with him, he wanted to take him back to the States and stand on the podium in the press conference centre set up in his mother's name and say: 'This is the man who saved my life when I didn't deserve it, this is the man I owe everything too.' But he knew that wouldn't happen, he knew Yinsen wouldn't make it past the entrance of the cave, his brain knew this, but his heart refused to accept it.

Yinsen looked at him, seeking out his eyes so he could look him straight in the face. A small smile made its way onto his face. 'My family's dead. I'm going to see them now, Stark. It's okay, I want this, I want this,' he said, closing his eyes and picturing his family's beautiful faces, his little boy, his daughter, his wife.

Tony couldn't even begin to explain what his emotions were doing and for the one of the first times in his life, he found himself speechless. Emotions weren't his strong suit, no matter what Pepper said, and he had no idea what to say that would make the situation less dire, less painful for them both. Suddenly, his mother was at his side, a hand on his shoulder. _Say thank you, Tony, _she whispered softly into his ear.

'Thank you for saving me,' he found his mouth saying, though the feeling spread from the heart that he apparently had now. All his life he'd been viewed as cold-heartless, even Pepper had called him that to his face in their early years, but now she was perhaps the only person in the world who knew he secretly cared, and loved him for it.

Yinsen smiled at him again. 'Don't waste it, don't waste your life, Stark,' he croaked, then his eyes rolled back in their sockets, his breathing stuttered twice, then stopped completely.

Tony looked down at him for a second, then vengeance filled his heart and he pushed the face plate down.

_I'm coming, Pepper. _

**XxXxXxX**

Tony was in a world of his own, but he did manage to spare a moment to say, or maybe think, he wasn't sure: _Shove that up your star-spangled ass, Capsicle, _as his mind drifted away from him.

**XxXxXxX**

Unbeknownst to Bruce, his teammates were still alive, if lying on the floor in semi-conscious states could _count _as being alive. The drug had completely infiltrated their bodies and the dream quarantine was becoming weaker as their bodies deteriorated and would shut down completely once their hearts stopped and their brain was no longer functioning to keep the illusion going. Tony was lying unconscious by Natasha's side, their hands entwined in a silent union, protecting each other. The Arc was completely green and Natasha had briefly closed her eyes to prevent herself from worrying about it, figuring if she couldn't see it then it may not have the same affect on her, the panic that crept up her spine and formed in the base of her stomach that she'd failed in her mission, her own personal mission to protect her teammate, to keep him safe from harm. Except once she'd closed her eyes, they hadn't opened again and she'd surrendered into the darkness, unable to fight anymore. _I never told Clint, _she thought to herself, then: _he knew._

Tony had been thinking about Pepper when his mind left him, he'd been thinking about their reunion when he'd got back from the Chitauri invasion and she'd been stood waiting for him, worry and joy plastered all over her face. He remembered the sweet kisses and warm hugs they'd shared, he remembered falling asleep with her arms around him, one hand playing with his hair, the other holding him tightly. He remembered her beautiful bright eyes and soft hair, and he felt unbelievable guilt that he wasn't strong enough to keep himself awake for her, to keep himself alive, it was guilt like he'd never felt before, possibly even stronger then the guilt he'd felt when he'd found Yinsen lying dying against sacks of corn. He wasn't sure if he imagined it in his drug fuelled daze, but he almost felt Pepper's hand take his, and he'd squeezed it reassuringly back. Hallucination or not, he loved her, more then he'd loved anything in his life, and if there was a chance that she was still with him, still stood by his side, he wanted her to know that he appreciated it. _This is what it must feel like to be in love, _was his last conscious thought after telling the Cap to stick it.

Thor and Clint were in the same situation, except instead of holding hands Clint had passed out against Thor and was now sat slumped against the wall, head lolling against his chest. Thor had his head tipped back and had one arm protectively wrapped around his teammate. Thor had been thinking about Jane, about how he should have really made the effort to see her more once he returned from Asgard, how he should have told her how he _really _felt about her. How he wanted to introduce her properly to his teammates with the same love and affection in his eyes Tony had shown when he introduced them all to Pepper. Thor loved Jane, he knew that now, he loved her with a fierce burning desire and wanted everyone to know it, he wanted the _world _to know that he, Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard, was in love with a mortal. And _what _a mortal. _I will return for you, I will show you how much you mean to me, _Thor thought, and a small smile made its way onto his face.

Clint was thinking about the first time he'd met Natasha, he'd been posing as a waiter at a high-class party she was a guest at in Moscow. Well, perhaps _guest _was the wrong word. _Gatecrasher _was more like it, but she was so beautiful they'd let her in, all red hair and heels and diamond jewellery she'd stolen out the bag of some countess when she wasn't looking. She was searching for him, he was searching for her. Someone had warned her SHIELD had sent an agent after her, and she knew just who to look for, she knew what he looked like, knew he'd been posing as staff. She was that good. It was very cliché, their first meeting, locked gases across a crowded room and all that, then it was a fight outside the restaurant that ended with a gun pressed against her head while Clint's head screamed at him to shoot her and complete his mission, and his heart screamed at him to let her live and try to give her another chance, while his brother's words screamed inside his head: _even the worst kind of people are capable of performing decent, selfless, acts. _Then he'd put the gun down, held his hand out to help her up and said: 'Hi, I'm Clint Barton of SHIELD, nice to meet you.' And she'd shaken his hand and said in flawless English, without a hint of her Russian accent: 'Nice to meet you, Clint Barton of SHIELD, I'm Natalia Romanova, why am I still alive?' Then he told her he wanted to recruit her and she'd raised an eyebrow at him like he was a moron, but she knew when she was beat and had agreed to meet Director Fury, and just like that she became Natasha Romanoff, on the side of the good guys. _And I never told her how I really feel, _Clint thought to himself. _But she knew, she always knew._

Steve had been thinking about Peggy, about how much he wished he'd called her when he had the chance. He'd thought she wouldn't want to see him, wouldn't want him in her life again when he'd stood her up at the Stork Club all those years ago. He remembered her beautiful warm brown eyes and her soft sweet smile. He remembered all his friends, the Howling Commandos, Howard Stark, all long gone. Then he guiltily remembered when he'd accidentally called Tony 'Howard' when he'd shown off his new toy, some new feature on his suit that was just so _genius. _The betrayed look on Tony's face would haunt him for the rest of his life, and although Steve had realised what he'd done and had tried to apologise, Tony had simply mumbled 's'okay' and had wandered off to find Pepper. Steve had spotted them sat out on the balcony later that evening, Pepper holding his hand and speaking reassuringly to him, Steve hadn't wanted to be caught eavesdropping but he'd heard Tony say: 'if Steve confuses me with dad then my whole life has been worth nothing,' and that sentence had chilled him to the bone. _I'll apologise properly, _Steve thought to himself. _Tony isn't Howard, cut from the same cloth but completely different. I'll tell him that, and I'll call Peggy. _

Bruce was thinking the same thing about Betty, and the other guy was too, surprisingly, he'd been projecting images into his mind of the army's attack at Culver University, and the few days they'd spent making their way across America to find 'Mr Green.' Hulk made it clear that he wanted Bruce to get in contact with her the second they made it back to the land of the living. _If _they made it back to the land of the living. _I'll introduce her to the Avengers, _Bruce thought. _Betty, Jane, Pepper and Natasha would get along famously. _

They all felt it. All felt the shock and pain as a sharp needle stabbed its way into their hearts and forced the counter-drug through their system. They all felt the warm rush they got afterwards as their hearts decided to do their job and beat stronger, and faster. And for a moment, they all thought in their unconscious states that their nightmare was over, that they could wake up and see their friends, live their lives. But they also all felt their heartbeat falter, stutter, and stop completely, and they all thought different things as they were thrown into oblivion.

_Pepper._

_Clint._

_Natasha._

_Jane._

_Betty._

_Peggy._

**XxXxXxX**

Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

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_How mean am I? Mwhaha :) Please review lovely people! Cupcakes for all :)_


	8. Chapter 8

_AHHH THIS CHAPTER IS SO LONG! I have literally never written a chapter this long! 10,000 words! Now you all know why it took me so long to update! So I thought we'd have some more memories from each other the team members before we start to wrap things up :) So here's six more memories for all of you, all ridiculously long and not many of them sticking to the original story in the comics, mainly because they seemed a bit over complicated and basically ridiculous, so I did my own versions :)_

_Please review! I love you all lots and lots like jelly tots!_

_IRON MAN 3 TRAILER TOMORROW. Who's excited? ME! :D :D :D_

_And to Fighter1357 who didn't sign in but asked for a cupcake, yes you can have one! :D_

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There had been about ten other girls in her group, ten other girls that sat in their room together and never talked, because they knew there was a chance that they would be forced to kill any of the others at any given moment. Bonding wouldn't help with that. Best to leave each other well alone than become friends.

Natalia Romanova was young when she was forced into the Red Room, too young. She'd never been a child, she'd never known innocence or happiness, only loneliness and hate. She was young, and she was beautiful, and she was the perfect candidate. No-one to miss her if she died, no-one to seek revenge on her behalf, no-one to rescue her from the cruel harshness of the world.

Once, when Natalia was young and was just starting out, a man was brought in, bound and gagged and beaten black and blue, and Natalia was ordered to finish him off. She was young and she was scared and she couldn't do it. So her trainer took the knife he'd given her to kill him and stabbed her in the arm. Natalia screamed as the blood ran down her skin but she learnt her lesson that day, you do not question orders, you follow them.

That same night, Natalia curled up in a ball on her bunk with a bandage pressed tightly against her wounded arm and cried, allowing the tears to fall silently down her cheeks, faced away from the other girls so they couldn't see her moment of weakness. The next day, however, when Natalia was handed the knife again, she slit the man's throat in one sweep, face unmoving, heart cold. Her trainer nodded at her approvingly as the dead man's body was removed from the room and his blood was washed away from the tiled floor.

From that moment on, Natalia was the perfect spy. She did what she was told without question, without thought, she was a soulless automaton, not thinking, not feeling, just doing.

Then she met Clint.

It had been years since the Red Room, years since the pain and the torment and the orders. She'd been tipped off by a… friend isn't the right word… colleague wasn't either… a person had informed her that she'd raised too much attention and SHIELD was after her. They told her they'd sent an agent to kill her. She retaliated by stealing the diamonds of a countess when she overheard her comment about how her hair was obviously dyed and made her look trashy. Her hair was naturally red thankyouverymuch and compared to the aging countess with her barely disguised grey hairs and large belly, she was Aphrodite. So she took the diamonds, broke out the dress she wore for special nights, styled her hair so it fell softly down her back in rich red waves, took a glass of champagne off the tray when it was offered to her by the waiter, and watched the room as the people danced and drank and laughed. Several men approached her, she turned them all down with a flick of her wrist, only interested in one person. When he spotted her, when their eyes locked across the room and she smirked at him, she felt in her heart that spread of coldness the first time she'd killed someone, the first time she'd slashed that man's throat. This SHIELD agent needed to die, in this world, it was kill or be killed.

He looked dashingly handsome in his tux, a napkin folded over his arm, a tray of glasses in one hand, mingling amongst the guests with the practised ease of one who'd been doing this for years. Unless she hadn't known, it was unlikely that Natalia would ever have guessed that this man was an assassin sent to kill her. Or maybe she would have, she was the best at what she did. The infamous Black Widow, known throughout Russia and Europe, and now America too it seemed.

_Good._

The agent spotted her, and she could tell he knew immediately she'd sussed him, she saw the quick flash of alarm in his eyes. Tut tut, a good spy knew better than to emotionally leak. Their eyes never broke their gaze as she made her way around the room, occasionally stopping to compliment a guest's hair or appearance, not that she thought it was actually a nice look. That colour hair with that dress? Amateur hour.

_Such a shame he has to die, _Natalia thought to herself. _There are so few attractive men in this world. _

She lost sight of him once, and that was all it took to lose him completely. Natalia frowned and ran her gaze once more over the guests' heads, trying to spot him. She could hear her trainer's voice in her head berating her for letting a mark out of her sight but she ignored it. She was the best, she knew that.

When she felt the cold blade of a knife press up against her back, and the words 'I've been looking forward to meeting you,' whispered in her ear, she was expecting it.

It took a while for the Agent to notice the knife she had positioned at his crotch and she heard him curse softly. 'Wow,' he said breathlessly. 'You are good.'

Natalia smirked and moved the knife up to the Agent's stomach, all it would take was one push in and…

'I'd rather you didn't, I have a proposition for you.'

Natalia frowned but her curiosity was peaked, plus in a packed room with loads of witnesses she wasn't in much danger so she tucked the knife away in her dress and felt the Agent do the same, safely stowing his blade up his sleeve.

She turned to face him and he grinned at her. 'So you're the famous Black Widow,' he said softly. 'I've heard a lot about you.'

She smiled sweetly at him. 'I'd expect nothing else from the man here to kill me.'

The Agent raised an eyebrow at her. 'Funny, from what I hear you don't seem to care about who you kill nowadays.'

Natalia glared at him and her hand went to her knife, but the Agent stopped her with a gently grip on her wrist.

'I'm sorry,' he said, bowing his head to her. 'That was rude. Now can we have a conversation like civilised people?'

Natalia gave him a look. 'Civilised?' she asked, not in a mocking tone, that was for children.

The Agent smiled at her and Natalia was surprised to see that it was a warm, gentle smile, not the cold condescension she was expecting. 'We're both adults,' he said. 'And I don't _want _to kill you, I want to give you an offer. Fancy some air?'

Natalia was surprised to feel her head nodding in agreement, and the Agent took her hand and led her outside to the cool air of the Moscow night, lights twinkling away in the distance, away from the heavy reek of alcohol and perfume and the obvious hatred that all the people in the room held for each other. If he noticed that Natalia's hand didn't leave the knife strapped to her thigh, he didn't say anything.

'So,' the Agent said, turning to face her once they were both stood alone on the balcony under the glittering stars of the Moscow night. 'My proposition then…'

'_Barton, quit stalling and do it already, we're running out of time to get you to the extraction point,' _the voice in his ear was loud enough for Natalia to pick up on in the quiet night, and the Agent winched and held a finger up to her. 'Half a mo,' he said, tapping the comm unit and speaking into a microphone hidden in his cufflink while Natalia leant back against the balcony, arms folded, eyebrow raised.

'Coulson, gotta situation, give me a five.'

'_For god's sake, Agent, shoot her already! We're running out of time.' _That was a different voice, it didn't sound as friendly either.

Natalia's eyes flicked up to the Agent's face and it took me about half a second to see her train of thought.

'Shit, no..!' but he didn't get to finish that sentence as Natalia shoved her fingers into his windpipe, cutting off his air and leaving him gasping for breath. She was so _stupid _to be tricked by the sympathetic-I-don't-want-to-hurt-you routine, and they were always _attractive _men that did it too.

_BASTARD!_

Natalia felt her body reacting out of habit after years of training. Her foot came up and made contact with his legs to trip him up as her arm flung itself out to knock the gun he'd pulled from his hand.

_He brought me out here, no witnesses, easier to kill, no-one would hear the gunshot over the sound of the music and chatting from inside. Stupid stupid STUPID!_

Natalia's rage made her strong, and she lashed out at him with her nails and heels, but he was fast too, and managed to knock her feet out from underneath her and land a boot in her stomach, leaving her sprawled on the ground. The next thing she knew, there was a gun pressed her head and the Agent's arm was around her neck, keeping her still and breathing heavily.

'Are we done?' he asked. Then the gun vanished from her head, his arm disappeared from around her neck, and his hand was being held out in front of him to help her up.

Natalia stared at him, confused, but cautiously accepted his hand, winching slightly as it put pressure on her bruised stomach.

'How about we start again?' the Agent said. 'Hi, I'm Clint Barton of SHIELD, nice to meet you.' He held his hand out in front of him and Natalia gave him a funny look. He gave her one in return, and shoved his hand towards her, daring her to take it.

Natalia flicked back her hair, drew herself up to her full height, and shook it.

'Nice to meet you, Clint Barton of SHIELD. I'm Natalia Romanova, why am I still alive?'

'I told you,' Clint said. 'I have a proposition for you.'

Natalia folded her arms in front of her and raised an eyebrow at him. 'I think we've been over this,' she confirmed. 'You never did tell me what it was.'

'Simple,' Clint told her. 'I want you to come work for SHIELD. Either that, or I shoot you, which I believe I've already told you I don't want to do.'

Natalia's eyebrows shot up and disappeared into her hairline. 'I see,' she said after a moment's pause. 'I don't believe the voices in your ear would approve.'

'They can suck it up,' Clint said, loud enough to let her know that they were obviously yelling at him and he wasn't agreeing. 'So, what do you say?' he asked. 'Work for SHIELD, or I shoot you.'

'I'd like to see you try,' Natalia shot back.

Clint grinned but said nothing.

It took Natalia a few moments to consider her options, but she easily arrived at her decision. She was tired of being chased around Russia, tired of being followed by her past, of worrying that someone from the Red Room would recognise her, would come after her, that there would be an occasion where she wouldn't be able to protect herself from harm. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Clint _seemed _kind enough, a few seconds ago he'd had a gun pressed against her skull but that was just business, happened to everyone.

'Alright,' Natalia said. 'I accept your offer.'

Clint's face broke out into a grin. 'Good,' he said. 'Now shall we make our exit? The voices in my ear are telling me I have two minutes to "_get my fucking ass to the fucking extraction point or I'm fucked_".'

Natalia laughed, then caught herself. She didn't remember the last time she'd laughed because she honestly thought something was funny. Clint obviously realised this because he gave her a half-hearted shrug and held a hand out to her, attaching a rope securely around the balcony with the other.

'May I have this dance?' he asked her.

Natalia took his hand, and together they leapt over the side of the building and slid down to the ground below. Together they knocked out a couple of guards and together they stole their car keys and made their escape.

'This is the start of a beautiful friendship,' Clint said, only half serious.

Natalia thumped him in the arm.

Needless to say, Director Fury was _not _happy that Agent Barton had deviated from their carefully set out plan and had actually _brought the Russian in _but, annoying though he was, Fury trusted his judgement, and after sizing the famous Black Widow up, in which she glared at him and flicked her hair, he nodded at her. 'Fine,' he said. 'Barton, show her to her quarters, and you'll need to change your name.'

Natalia frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but Clint already had a hand on her elbow and was taking her away down the corridor.

'_Why _do I have to change my name?' Natalia hissed at him.

Clint shrugged. 'Russians are probably after you along with every defensive organisation in the United States, especially when they hear you're actually _in _their country. Plus, you're scaring the younger personal.'

Natalia smirked.

That evening, Agent Barton came to her room with a selection of DVDs, and a large bowl of sweets.

'We're probably gonna be assigned as partners,' he said with a shrug. 'We may as well get to know each other. Gummy bear?'

Natalia took the offered gummy bear and selected Men In Black to watch, curious as to the DVD's cover, she hadn't had the opportunity to watch that many films in Russia, in fact, she couldn't recall the last time she'd ever seen a movie.

When the film was over, Natalia played absently with a strand of her hair while Clint regaled her of all the different times he'd make the new recruits wet themselves with terror when he'd jumped out of the air vent and appeared suddenly in front of them. Natalia was surprised to find she was actually _enjoying _the agent's company, he wasn't at all dull, and gave her enough time to intervene and say something herself. Not that she did, she was very quiet and preferred to listen.

'You don't say much,' Clint informed her, eating a jelly snake.

Natalia shrugged. 'Don't have much to say,' she said.

'We'll have to work on that,' Clint said absently as he polished off the jelly hearts and offered Natalia a caramel, which she took and sucked thoughtfully.

'Penny for them?' Clint asked, noticing her expression.

'Natasha Romanoff,' Natalia said. 'For my new name. Close enough that it still feels like me, but not so close that people would recognise it immediately.'

'Sounds perfect,' Clint said, grinning. He glanced at his watch and hopped to his feet. 'I better go, mission debrief with Coulson in the morning. It's gonna be dull and I'm gonna get yelled at.' He gave a mock bow to his companion. 'I will see you tomorrow, Natasha.'

Natasha _né _Natalia inclined her head at him, and he closed the door firmly behind him, leaving SHIELD's newest agent to her thoughts.

**XxXxXxX**

Tony Stark thumbed through the pages of that week's budget report, not really paying that much attention to it. Obadiah was till trying to get him to double check his math but Tony honestly didn't see the point. He'd graduated MIT summa cum laude aged seventeen, he was a boy genius, his math was never wrong. Plus, it was a Friday. _No-one _works on a Friday. Apart from Obie, and the majority of his staff, but there was obviously something wrong with all of them.

Satisfied, he threw the report down on the desk and glanced at the pile of folders Obie had given him to look over. _Apparently _he was completely unable to take care of himself and needed a personal assistant. He'd had several, but for some reason none of them tended to last very long and he needed a new one. He flicked absently through the folders, not reading the qualifications or the grades, but looking at the pictures. Most of them were old and male, and the female applicants were all married with kids.

_Boring. _

Someone came in at some point in the afternoon to retrieve the budget report he'd finished proof-reading, but Tony didn't notice, too busy playing Galaga on his computer, old, but still a classic. What he _did _notice, was a tall red-head in heels come storming into his office screaming blue murder at his security and waving the budget report in her hand.

'Don't you dare touch me! I have pepper spray!' she screamed at them as they tried to drag her outside.

Tony eyebrows shot straight up as he tried to work out _where _in her tight business suit she was hiding said pepper spray, unless it was tucked into the front of her cleavage, it obviously didn't exist.

'It's okay, let her through before she kills someone,' Tony said, waving off the security guard, who gave him a look like he'd clearly gone insane but backed off all the same, keeping an eye on this murderous red-head out of the corner of one eye, obviously expecting her to stab their boss with her wickedly sharp heels.

'What can I do for you, Miss…?' Tony asked, knowing better than to try and flirt with her in the mood she was in. She was very pretty, quite tall with that strawberry-blond hair, model figure and pale skin. Dressed in a smart business suit with those evil heels on her feet, she cut a very impressive figure.

'Potts, Virginia Potts,' she informed him. Tony decided not to make any 'James Bond' jokes and offered her a seat, which she refused and instead held out that morning's budget report to him. 'I believe you've made an error in the last column, section 17,' she told him.

Tony gave her a look, his _don't question me I'm a maths genius _look and she actually _glared _at him. Tony found himself liking her more and more by the second, she hadn't tried to kill him yet either, which was definitely a plus.

'If you don't mind, Mr Stark, I'm very busy, I need to go and clear my desk out,' she said, glaring at him with stunning stormy blue eyes.

Tony took the papers off her and skipped to the section she'd mentioned. 'Why?' he asked as he tried to find the error.

'Why what?' she asked irritably.

'Why do you need to go and clear your desk out?' he asked, frowning at the numbers and doing some mental maths in his head.

'Because I've just been fired by my manager for even _daring _to suggest that the great Tony Stark made a maths error,' she said sarcastically, glaring at him again, clearly not in the mood for chit chat.

'Well, Miss Potts,' Tony said, picking up a pen and making some changes to the numbers. 'You can tell your former boss that _he's _the one that can pack up his desk. I don't appreciate my managers telling my employees they're idiots, as it is, you were right, I did make a mistake.'

'An expensive one too,' she said, taking the papers off him and glancing down at the correct calculations he'd scrawled down the side in almost unreadable handwriting.

'Over $300,000 more expensive, yes I know,' Tony said.

The red-head adjusted her suit and nodded politely at him. 'Thank you, Mr Stark, will that be all?'

Tony gave her a once over. Pretty, fiery, not afraid to tell him he was wrong, the more he saw the more he liked.

'No, that won't be all, _Pepper,' _he informed her. 'Working in accounting must be more than thrilling for you, career satisfaction and all that, but I would like you to work for _me.' _

She frowned. 'I already do work for you,' she clarified. 'Last time I checked it was your name on the side of the building and on my pay checks. And my name is _Virginia _not _Pepper.'_

Tony waved her complaint off with one hand. 'Virginia sounds too much like a state.'

'It is a state.'

'There you go. It's boring, not very you, _Pepper _on the other hand is much better. Coincidently, where _are _you hiding this "pepper spray" of yours?'

"Pepper" glared at him and he smirked. 'Just as I thought,' he said. 'So, I have an opening for a personal assistant, and I would like you to take it.'

She gave him a cautious look, she was well aware of his reputation with women and he knew it, the other PA's he'd had hadn't worked out mainly because he'd slept with them, the last one had only lasted two weeks.

'No funny business,' he promised her. 'It takes a lot of balls to march in here and tell me I'm wrong. Not that I'm saying you have balls mind, quite the opposite in fact…'

'Stop talking,' she said, cutting off his rambling midstream.

Tony shut up and clasped his hands behind his back, raising an eyebrow at her expectantly.

She seemed to be taking his offer quite seriously, especially considering he'd just offered it to her out of the blue.

'If I say no?' she asked.

Tony shrugged. 'You can stay in accounting, but it would be a waste of talent.'

Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow. 'Talent?'

'You just marched in here, gave me a piece of your mind, and actually got me to do some _work,' _Tony said, hand over his heart like the very word was too much for him. 'Do you know how difficult that is for me to do?'

'I do actually,' she said dryly, remembering the stories about how annoying and difficult he was to work with from other employees.

'Exactly,' Tony said. 'Like I said, you've got balls and I like that in a woman. So, yay or nay?'

'If you promise me to never say "yay or nay" ever again, then yes, I will take the position,' she said.

'Awesome,' Tony said grinning. 'That's two things accomplished today. See? We make a great team, Pepper. See you bright and early Monday morning.'

'Don't call me "Pepper",' she said, turning on her heel and marching from the room, budget report clasped tightly in one hand.

'You'll get used to it!' Tony called after her.

She did actually.

**XxXxXxX**

Barney Barton had gotten his younger brother out of the children's home as fast as he could. A travelling fair had come through town and the home had arrange for them to go and see them. Clint had spent hours and hours watching the archery, and the archer had offered to give him a quick lesson. He'd had such a natural aptitude for it that when Barney mentioned wanting to leave the town the archer had volunteered to take care of the pair of them, provided he could continue to teach Clint archery, saying that a talent like his shouldn't go to waste.

That was how they found themselves eleven years later, crouching low underneath the circus stadium, watching the acrobats and the fire jugglers perform. Clint was so good at archery now he could hit the target blindfolded after being spun in a circle and was now performing himself in the show under the name 'Hawkeye! The World's Greatest Marksman!' His archer mentor had told him he had a special gift, and after being forced into early retirement due to joint pain, Clint was now a solo act. Considering nobody had ever told him he was good at anything and he'd never viewed himself as having a particular talent, Clint's life in the circus were the best years of his life.

The same couldn't be said for Barney, unfortunately.

He loved his brother, of course he did, he'd risked life and limb to get him out of the children's home and there was probably a warrant for kidnapping on his head out there somewhere, but he didn't fit in with the circus. Clint was so young when they'd joined he'd had time to learn new things, people came from miles around to see the famous 'Hawkeye' perform, but Barney was too old and didn't have any talents he could put to use, so he mainly helped out the lion tamer by cleaning out the cages. Not a great job, but someone had to do it and these people were taking good care of both of them.

Barney watched his sixteen year old brother peeling an apple with a knife out the corner of his eye. He'd just finished his shoot and was now relaxing with his brother, enjoying the other performances even though he'd seen them thousands of times. He didn't want to leave Clint, but he still had years of his life left, he was only twenty-five, there were loads of things he could do. Recently, he'd been thinking of enlisting in the army, there had been posters up all around the town when he'd nipped into town earlier in the week, and the uniform was so smart and respectable. Living in the circus made him an outcast, Clint didn't seem bothered by this label, but Barney wanted to _live. _

Barney cleared his throat nervously and watching his little brother's eyes watching the acrobats on the trapeze, swinging effortlessly through the air, even after all these years he still had the same childlike wonder he'd had the first time he'd seen them perform, even though he could do most of their tricks now.

'So, Clint,' Barney began, watching his brother's face until he was sure his attention was on him. 'I was thinking, maybe it's time for me to leave.'

Clint frowned. 'Leave? Where would we go?' Even as a young adult, Clint couldn't imagine his life without his big brother.

'Not we,' Barney said. 'Me.'

A series of emotions flashed across his brother's face. Confusion, anger, betrayal, and then, finally, understanding.

'Why?' he asked, popping some of the apple pieces into his mouth.

Barney shrugged. 'I want to do other things,' he said.

'Like what?'

'I thought maybe join the army.'

Clint watched his face carefully, looking for marks of deception in his features. 'You have never shown any interest in joining the army,' he said, accusingly.

'They're enlisting in town,' Barney said. 'I want to have a job, a proper, respectful job.'

Clint gave him a look and Barney quickly reworded his sentence. 'Not that being in the circus _isn't _a proper, respectful job,' he said. 'But it's not for me. You're amazing, Clinton, you're so good at archery, you can hit the bullseye without even _looking. _But me, I have no place here, I help out now and then but they only tolerate me because you're so good. I have a chance to do something different, to serve my country.' Barney sighed. 'Maybe I'll even get married and have kids, who knows?'

Clint smiled softly. 'I won't stop you from doing what you want,' he said. 'I can't depend on you all my life, and I like to think I have a few more years here. If you want to join the army, go ahead, I won't stop you, in fact I'll be _proud _of you. My big brother Barney in the army. It rhymes, _and _it's alliterative.'

Barney ruffled Clint's hair playfully. 'You're hilarious,' he told him.

Clint shrugged modestly. 'It's a gift,' he said. Then his face turned serious. 'When were you going to leave?' he asked.

'The army's here until Friday,' Barney said. 'Which gives me three days to pack my things and say goodbye and thank you to everybody.'

Suddenly, Clint jumped up and wrapped his arms around his brother. 'Don't be a stranger,' he mumbled into his collarbone. 'You're still the only family I have.'

Barney rubbed his back. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'I'll write all the time.'

'Make sure you do,' Clint said, poking him in the shoulder.

Barney chuckled and together they watched the rest of the show.

Two nights before Barney's departure, Clint couldn't sleep, his body was racked with worry for his brother. What if he was killed out there? What if they lost contact? He didn't want to be alone.

Clint rearranged the blankets in the little nest above the trapeze wire where he slept on the wooden pole keeping the big top up. He found he preferred to be high up, he liked to be able to watch everything from a distance. Beside him, his bow and quiver of arrows were in their usual position. Outside, the sky had gone dark and the performers had gone to sleep, preserving their energy for the show the next day, Barney's 'Good-Bye' show, he'd be gone the next day. Maybe for good…

Clint squeezed his eyes tightly shut, not wanting to have to think about that. Barney wouldn't leave him, he loved him, he'd _promised._

He smelt the smoke before he saw the fire, but then isn't that always the case? Usually it's as a warning, but that counts for nothing when his home was made almost entirely of fabric and highly flammable liquids.

Clint jumped up, sniffing the air. Outside, he heard someone scream: 'FIRE!' and then all hell broke lose as performers raced from their tents, tripping over themselves to get water to put the flames out. Through a gap in the fabric, Clint could see it was one of the tents that was on fire, and the flames were licking around the tent next to it, and soon the whole row of them were on fire.

Clint grabbed his bow and slung his quiver over his back. He used his bow to get himself to the ground, creating a zip line by holding his bow above the wire above his head and hanging on tightly to both sides, kicking off firmly from his pole-nest and giving himself enough momentum to slide down the line to the ground below, where he forward rolled into a standing position and raced outside to help.

Everywhere was fire and smoke. The chemicals in the fire eater's tent had ignited, and if had been alive in there before the fire started he certainly wasn't now.

'Clint!'

Clint turned round to see his brother racing towards him in his pyjamas, he grabbed his arm roughly. 'Are you okay?' he asked.

'I'm fine, Barney,' Clint said. 'You?'

Barney nodded, and Clint heard the ringmaster's panicked yells. 'My daughter's in there! GET OFF ME MY DAUGHTER IS STILL IN THERE!'

The two Barton's turned their attention to the noise. The ringmaster's daughter was caught in one of the flaming tents, two men were trying to get to her while the others were holding her panicking father back and away from the flames.

'Stay here!' Barney said, pushing his little brother back and racing towards the tent where she was stuck.

'No! Come back!' Clint yelled, about to run after him before the older archer wrapped his arm around the boy's chest, stopping him from running after his brother.

'You'll only get in the way,' Clint's mentor told him softly.

Clint could nothing but watch as Barney pushed past the two men into the tent. A few seconds later, the ringmaster's daughter came flying out of the tent, landing on her knees, just as the tent collapsed to the ground, a flaming ball of fire, trapping Barney inside.

'NO!' Clint screamed, pushing himself free of the older archer and racing towards the tent. 'BARNEY!'

Several performers tried to stop him, reaching out their hands to grab him but Clint forced his way past them to get to his brother.

Then the tent exploded, sending fiery tendrils into the sky as the ringmaster's daughter's wide selection of beauty products, including large amounts of hairspray ignited.

'BARNEY!' Clint screamed himself hoarse, trying desperately to get to the flaming tent, knowing there was nothing he could do for his brother now.

'Let's get out of here before the whole place goes up!' the ringmaster yelled, clutching his daughter to him and racing for the caravan.

'Come along, Clint,' one of the acrobats said to him, tugging on his arm, but Clint pulled himself away from there and collapsed into a ball on the burning ground, sobs wracking his body.

He was alone.

Alone alone alone.

Then something hit him hard of the back of the head and that was the last thing he knew.

When Clint came to the next morning, he was lying on his front alone on the ground in front of what _used _to be the ringmaster's daughter's tent. Around him, the circus lay in ashes, his home destroyed and not a soul in sight. The grass was black and the tents were smoking still.

Clint pulled himself up onto his knees and promptly threw up all the smoke and ash from that night onto the black ground, clutching a hand to his head and feeling the dried blood there and the egg-shaped lump on his head, surprised to find it was neatly bandaged.

'You were kicked by one of the horses,' a voice from behind him said. 'It must have been spooked by the fire.'

Clint whipped round, notching an arrow to his bow instinctively, regretting it as his head ached and throbbed.

The man stood in front of him was in a black suit and was balding slightly, he was watching Clint with a concerned gaze, watching his face rather than the arrow aimed at his heart. Clint had never killed a person, but right at that moment he was so angry he honestly thought he could do anything.

'I'm Agent Phil Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division,' the balding man said.

The corner of Clint's mouth pulled upwards into a cruel smirk. 'You need a new name for that,' he said, the hand keeping the arrow taut not wavering.

'Yeah,' Coulson said. 'I hear that a lot. Anyway, I have a proposition for you.'

'What kind of proposition?' Clint asked.

'The kind where you put the arrow down and we get you some food and clean clothes, Hawkeye,' Coulson said.

Years later, Agent Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton was called into Fury's office where he was handed a thick file containing pages of information and a picture.

'She's been wrecking more havoc than usual,' Fury said. 'We can't ignore her any more, she'd become a viable threat to the safety of this country. I trust you recognise the picture?'

Clint nodded. 'Yes, sir,' he said. 'Natalia Romanova, what do you want me to do?'

'I want you to kill her.'

**XxXxXxX**

Bruce Banner was smart, he knew that, in Science class he excelled in every topic, getting consistently high grades and school awards. Yet for all his brains and genius, he never had any friends, in fact people seemed to avoid him like the plague, unless they wanted him to do their science homework for them. And he always said yes, he was so desperate for friends he'd do anything.

All through high school, until the day he graduated college, Bruce was widely left alone. He was that freaky kid, the kid with the alcoholic father who'd been sectioned, the same father who'd murdered his mother when she tried to get him out of the house, to take him somewhere safe. His life had been tragedy after tragedy, so he was glad when he got into university and finally began to make a new name for himself. He wasn't the freaky kid anymore, he was clever, smart, funny Bruce Banner, who didn't mind helping you out now and then and made a mean vegetable lasagne. He was good, he was kind, people respected him, and Bruce managed to put his past behind him and become a new man.

In his final year of university, Bruce met Betty Ross, a brilliant student studying cellular biology and the only daughter of General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, who clapped Bruce on the back and announced loudly that 'he will go far.'

Betty and Bruce date for a while, and it's amazing and wonderful, but it has to end when General Ross demands that Betty return to Virginia with him once she's completed her degree. He reads about her in the paper a few years later, _Dr _Betty Ross, graduated with honours from Culver University. He's a doctor by then as well, with his own honours, but he can't stop his heart swell up with pride when he sees her name in the paper. Beautiful, brilliant, incredibly Dr Elizabeth Ross.

When the job advertisement comes up at the university Bruce has to take it, and when he sees her again and she gives him that award winning smile, he doesn't think his life as ever been this good. Finally, after his awful rocky start in life, things are perfect.

Then he starts experimenting in gamma radiation.

It's partly General Ross' fault, he wants to be the one that gets the fame and glory for unlocking Erskine's original super-soldier formula that brought the likes of Captain America to life, but it's also Bruce's fault, because he's a scientist and this is science at its best, unlocking the genetic code, rewriting DNA, and yeah he's curious and wants to know if he can actually _do _the impossible, recreate the super-soldier formula. Plus he's also curious as to why Stark Industries flat out refused to provide the funding for Ross' project, especially considering SI is already the primary weapons contractor to the USA. _Maybe Tony Stark thinks it's a waste of time, _Bruce thinks. So he conducts his own experiments and writes his own equations with the help of Betty, and he's so sure of his research, so certain that everything is perfect, that he decides to test it on himself, they won't get any human volunteers anyway.

Well, that didn't really go his way so much did it?

When he meets Tony Stark, when he struts onto the bridge and immediately gets into everyone's space and starts showing off his brilliance he wants to ask him why he didn't fund Ross' project, why he immediately knew it was a lost cause. But he doesn't, he keeps quiet and he just enjoys being in the same room as a genius who appreciates him and isn't trying to get him locked up so he never sees the light of day again. And when he casually refers to him as his 'Science Bro' (mainly to make Pepper laugh), Bruce just smiles, a smile which breaks out into a full blown grin. He's friends with Tony Stark, the freaky kid from high school is friends with the coolest superhero on the planet. The guy who leant him a suit to wear after his outfit got torn to shreds by the Hulk.

And life gets back on track. After returning from India to sort out some of his possessions, Tony immediately invites him to stay at Stark Tower with him and his beautiful wonderful girlfriend who _somehow _(god/Thor only knows how) manages to put up with him and actually _loves _him.

Then, one by one, the Avengers pile into the tower with them and they become a sort of family. Tony isn't always there of course, occasionally he has to go home to California or needs to fly out somewhere to meet with important business people, and occasionally Natasha and Clint fly out on missions and aren't heard from for weeks, and Thor tends to be in Asgard most of the time ('Or Ass-guard, I mean seriously look at how tight his trousers are!' Tony whispers to him one evening when he's feeling a bit down, and he bursts straight out laughing, which means Thor wants to know what's so funny, so he only laughs harder and Tony is stood there with a shit-eating grin on his face) so they don't see much of him either, but when they're all together, when they can actually tolerate being in the same room as each other without fights breaking out, it's fun and great and Bruce has a home and a family again.

Then Betty reappears.

He doesn't get a warning either, he hears the penthouse doorbell ring (why Tony has a doorbell in a tower is beyond him) and Pepper isn't there so Tony gets up to go answer it, and he takes such a long time that Bruce worries so he follows him up to make sure everything's okay, and he finds him in the kitchen with Betty Ross, making her a cup of coffee while she tries to find the confidence to speak to him again. And he's so _happy _to see her, it feels like all the jigsaw pieces of his life are fitting themselves together and he can't help but smile and run over to her and slip his arms around her. He vaguely sees Tony place the cup of coffee at her elbow then sneak out the room, but he's just so happy to be breathing in her soft safe scent he barely notices.

When Jane appears, Pepper taps her foot angrily on the ground and he hears her complain to Tony about how unfair it is that _Thor's _girlfriend has a doctorate and all she has is a degree in accounting. Then Tony laughs and kisses her and tells her that putting up with him for all these years is the equivalent of at _least _ten doctorates and he'd like to see Jane or Betty do her job, and she relaxes and kisses him back and greets Jane warmly, and after that the three girls become best of friends.

And Bruce's life is perfect.

**XxXxXxX**

When Thor returns to Asgard, he's met with adoring crowds cheering and screaming his name. _What must I look like to them? _he thought bitterly. _The hero that that stopped the war criminal Loki. Their Prince of Thunder. _Thor didn't feel like any of the above as he escorted his brother to his father's palace. _Have they forgotten that Loki is a son of Odin as well? No matter what he thinks. _Thor blocked out the crowd's screaming and cheers, his heart ripped in half, how _could _they forget all that Loki had done for them, he had been good, kind, wonderful, a good prince. Thor glanced at his brother, but Loki's head was down and he stared only at the ground, his face partly obscured by his black hair.

The walk to the palace took longer then it usually did, and Thor's heart grew heavier with each step he took, knowing that whatever punishment Odin chose for Loki, it would be cruel.

'I'm sorry, brother,' Thor said softly to Loki, but if he did hear him, he didn't acknowledge it.

Once they were safely inside the golden throne room, Frigga stood up immediately, racing down the steps towards her son, ignoring her husband's glares.

'Loki,' she said softly, cupping her son's face in his hands.

Loki looked at her through his green eyes, and for a second, a flicker of regret flickered there, but then it was gone and he looked back down at the floor.

'Loki Laufeyson,' Odin said, standing up and gazing down at the prisoner. Loki winched when he heard his _real _last name and Frigga's glare would have made mortals cower in fear and run.

'Odin,' she hissed at him. 'Loki is _our _son.'

'No true son of mine would behave as he did,' Odin said, still looking at Loki.

Loki glared at him, and Thor could practically _feel _the hatred radiating out from under his skin.

'We've been over this,' Frigga said, fire blazing in her eyes. 'Loki is our son, whether you like it or not.'

Thor saw something akin to shame flicker in Loki's eyes. The thought of letting his mother down, when she still stood up for him after all he'd done, was tearing his heart in half, not that he wanted Thor to notice that. But Frigga had loved him, wholeheartedly, unconditionally, even when he'd confronted her when he found out about his true parentage the first thing she'd said to him was: _'You are our son, Loki. And we your family.'_

'Regardless,' Odin said, walking down the steps to stand in front of Loki. 'You must be punished for your crimes against the Midgardians. Therefore I have decided, in accordance with our laws, your mouth will be sewn shut with golden thread and you will be cast into prison until I believe you have redeemed yourself.'

Loki's eyes opened wide and Frigga gasped. Thor flung himself in front of his brother. 'That is cruel and unnecessary!' he bellowed.

'Stand aside, Thor,' Odin said, calmly.

'Never,' Thor spat at his father. 'That punishment is unnecessary.'

Odin observed his son through narrowed lids. 'This is most unlike you, Thor,' he said after a moment's pause. 'You have looked to serve justice throughout the realms for years, why speak up now? You never did before, in fact you often took action yourself whether or not I had given you my approval.'

'I was young and naïve,' Thor said. 'And never before was my brother the victim or your "justice".'

'Victim?' Odin glared at Thor. 'The victims are the mortals that had to suffer because of Loki's childishness. The victims are the humans that _lost their lives, _and these _Avengers _nearly went the same way.'

'Father, I beg you,' Thor said. 'Reconsider, please. Loki is family.'

'Loki forfeited the right to be part of our family when he let the Jotuns into Asgard,' Odin said quietly, dangerously.

'You don't forfeit the right to belong to a family!' Thor bellowed. 'People make mistakes, _I _have made more mistakes then I can recall yet you have never made me an outcast, I was banished but I was _still _your son! Loki deserves the same treatment, Asgard is his home!'

Caught behind Thor, Loki was watching the scene play out, guilt seeping up into his soul. As much as he hated Thor standing up for him when he was perfectly capable of doing it himself (if this infernal muzzle could be removed) he also did not like the idea of having his mouth sewn shut. Next to him, watching him cautiously, Frigga held one of his hands in a silent pledge to keep him safe, to do _something _to help him.

'ENOUGH!' Odin bellowed. 'Thor, get out.'

Thor held Mjolnir aloft and stood his ground. 'No,' he said, gritting his teeth together.

Things happened very quickly after that. Odin grabbed his sceptre and sent a burst of light at Thor's chest, sending him flying to the ground unconscious, Mjolnir flying out of his hand. He grabbed Loki by his neck and vanished, taking him down to the cells where no-one would hear from him for a very long time.

Frigga dropped to her knees beside Thor and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, there would be time for tears later. Right now, she needed to save her children from her husband's rage.

When Thor came to, he was in his room, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three gazing down at him with concerned looks.

Thor grunted and heaved himself up, glaring at Volstagg when he made to offer a hand.

'Where is my brother,' he spat out between his teeth.

'In the cells,' Sif said quietly, knowing better than to try and argue with Thor when he was in a foul mood such as this, he wasn't called the Thunderer for nothing after all.

'Thor…' Hogan said.

'Don't,' Thor warned him. 'Loki is my brother, he deserves a fair trial, not the torture he is suffering at my father's hand.'

'He is viewed to the whole of Asgard as a traitor, Thor,' Sif said. 'If you are seen protecting him, you too will be viewed as a traitor.'

'I will take my chances,' Thor said, standing up and holding out his hand for Mjolnir to return to it.

'Thor, please, think about what you're doing,' Fandral said, trying to get his friend to see sense. 'The whole of Asgard will turn against you.'

'Loki is my brother,' Thor repeated, staring his friends down. 'I do not believe that he was completely in control of his actions.'

'You think the Chitauri were controlling him?' Volstagg asked, frowning.

'I do not know,' Thor said. 'But I intend to find out. Now if you don't mind, I must visit my brother.'

Thor managed to sneak past the guards unnoticed, considering he'd been doing it for years, it was no longer a challenge. The corridor leading down to the cells was dark and musty, and Thor tried to ignore the other prisoners in the cages, he was only here for one, but when he reached Loki's cage, somebody else had beaten him to it.

'Hela,' Thor said, watching the dark haired girl as she carefully unpicked the thread from Loki's bloody, swollen lips, while her father tipped his head back, eyes screwed tightly shut, sweat standing out on his forehead as he screamed in silent agony.

'Thor,' Hela said, not turning round to look at her uncle as she pulled the last of the thread from Loki's mouth.

Loki let out a gasp when his mouth was free and he threaded his fingers through his daughter's thick black hair. 'Thank you, Hela,' he choked out.

Hela turned to look at her uncle, the dead side of her face screwed up in a frown, her clear green eyes glaring at him in contempt. 'You have some nerve showing your face here, Odinson,' she spat at him in disgust.

'How did you get in?' Thor asked.

Hela said nothing, she looked at her father and kissed his forehead. 'I will see you soon, father,' she said softly.

'Thank you, Hela,' Loki said, running a hand gently across the dead side of her face.

Hela stood up and glared at Thor one last time, before disappearing in a cloud of black smoke, leaving the scent of ozone and decomposing flesh behind her.

Thor watched Loki carefully, his pale skin was tinged slightly green and his lips were swollen and black, strands of golden thread had fallen onto his clothes, and his hands were trembling slightly, but despite all that, his green eyes were focused and were glaring at him coldly.

'I came to remove the thread,' Thor said. 'But Hela obviously beat me to it. How _did _she get into Asgard?'

'Our mother let her in,' Loki said, and Thor didn't miss the pride in his voice or the way he said _our _mother.

'She shouldn't have done that,' Thor said.

'She's a good girl,' Loki snapped at him. 'She has a kind heart, even after your father cursed her to Helheim for the rest of eternity.'

_Your _father.

Thor swallowed thickly and sat on the ground in front of Loki. 'I came to ask you,' he said. 'What did the Chitauri say to you? What did they promise you?'

Loki glared at him, but said nothing.

'Loki, please,' Thor said. 'Father would see you rot in here, I am trying to help you, I want you to have a fair trial.'

Loki laughed bitterly. 'Like Odin would grant me a fair trial,' he said. 'He wants only to see me dead, his bastard son.'

'That's not true!' Thor said.

'You heard what the Alfather said to me,' Loki said. 'I forfeited the right to be a part of your family. I am a Frost Giant, children are scared of me, and they have every right to be.'

'They never used to be,' Thor said, quietly. 'They used to run up to you to see your tricks, to see you conjure flames out of thing air, they adored you, Loki.'

'Emphasis on the past tense,' Loki said, with a tone that sounded a little like sadness.

Thor grabbed his brother's hand, and was surprised when Loki didn't pull away. 'We can fix this,' he said. 'I know you were being manipulated by the Chitauri, and I'm not denying that the way Odin treated you was wrong, it was, he had no right saying those things. But we were raised together, we shared our childhood, where there was me, there was always you, we are _brothers, _Loki, that bond is still there whether you like it or not. And I will not sit idly by and watch you waste away inside a cell.'

Loki narrowed his eyes at him in confusion. 'Even after all this time,' he said. 'The way I treated you, you _still _love me?'

'Always,' Thor said, his face softening. 'We are brothers, there is no bond stronger then ours, but it has been twisted and broken and needs repairing. I _need _you, Loki, by my side, just like the old days.'

Thor wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but it _looked _like the corners of Loki's mouth quirked upwards in a half-smile.

'What do you want me to do?' Loki asked, finally accepting that his fate rested in Thor's hands.

'Tell me everything,' Thor said. 'Right from the beginning, miss out nothing.'

So Loki did.

**XxXxXxX**

When he was asked, Steve could never give a reason as to why he refused to stand down when he was beaten up in alleyways, he suspected it was because he simply hated bullies, and every time he gave up and surrendered, it was a victory for them.

Then the super soldier program came along and suddenly, he was a massive muscle mountain and didn't _need _to hide from bullies anymore, he could stand up for himself and protect America and his friends at the same time, it was a simple solution. And if anyone ever questioned him or doubted him, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark were there to back him up and encourage him.

The first time Steve was introduced to Tony Stark, it was in the form of a interview. Tony was sat next to an anchorman in a newsroom, dressed sharply in a simple brown suit, giving the camera an award-winning smile and clear, understandable answers. He was so damn _charming, _and Steve hated him immediately. He didn't know who it was to start with, it wasn't until the program resumed after an ad break and Steve saw the caption: 'Tony Stark: Co-CEO of Stark Industries talking about the new Arc Reactor Technology' when he put two and two together and recognised the dark hair and the dark eyes and the cocky grin and arrogant confidence as belonging to Howard. And he still hated him, hated that Tony was alive and Howard wasn't. He read all the old newspaper reports from when Tony was a child, saw all the pictures of the small dark haired boy proudly holding up a machine part or an intricate design drawn on paper. He read the interviews in Forbes and Vanity Fair, and the more he saw the more he disliked Howard's son. He didn't realise of course that Tony felt exactly the same way about him, he didn't realise that as a child Tony had idolised Captain America, hadn't realised that Howard had talked about him all the time, so much in fact that eventually Tony began to resent his childhood hero, because the more his father talked about him, the more Tony realised that actually, he was nothing like Steve Rogers, he never could be and he obviously wasn't worth his father's attention.

Steve honestly couldn't believe that Tony had a _girlfriend. _An actual, living, breathing, wonderful girlfriend who was kind and charming and lovely. And suddenly, the arrogant Tony he'd come to know vanished and was replaced with this calm, sweet, loving Tony who doted on Pepper and loved her completely. It was amazing how different he was when he was around her, and how different the Pepper on the newsreels was when she was around Tony. There was such a stark, if you'll pardon the pun, contrast that Steve wondered if she was actually the same woman, and when he found the two of them curled up on the sofa together after falling asleep during a movie, Pepper resting her head on Tony's bicep and Tony wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her close to him so she could sleep safe in his arms, his hatred for Tony vanished immediately. He was just so _caring _when it came to Pepper, and was loathe to let her out of his sight. On one particular occasion, Pepper had been on a business trip for a week and Tony had been wandering around the tower like a lost child, unsure as to what to do now his other half wasn't there. And when she came back… he'd run across the room, picked her up and spun her round until they collapsed in a giggling tangle of limbs on the floor. Steve hadn't meant to watch this, but he'd spotted the pair through the window lying on the floor, Pepper curled up against Tony's chest, the adoration clear in his eyes.

And you just _couldn't _hate someone like that. So Steve played nice with Tony, and soon their little bunch of misfits could almost be seen as an actual _team, _with a touch of a family element underneath it, especially when Betty and Jane came into the picture as well. That was all nearly blown to pieces when Steve got irritable with Tony and had yelled 'for God's SAKE, Howard!' at him, and Tony had just stood there like a deer in the headlights, frozen and staring at him. Eventually he'd spun on his heel and marched out of the room and a few minutes later they all heard the sounds of things blowing up coming from his lab. He'd turned round and the entire team had been stood there, arms crossed, glaring at him. No matter how hard he tried Steve couldn't coax Tony out of his lab, and had to resort to a Peppervention to get him out. She'd surprised him when she'd pointed a finger at him, tapped her pointy heel on the floor and glared at him, saying: 'don't you dare _ever _call him "Howard" ever again,' after she'd managed to get him into the shower, and then bed for some much needed rest. Steve had just said 'yes, ma'am' and had gone out for a run to clear his head, a slightly larger grasp on why Tony had hated him so much when they'd first met.

Steve finally managed to get the courage to call Peggy about a week after the Chitauri had invaded, and they'd met up at in a little café and had just held each other for most of the day, silent tears cascading down each other's cheeks for the life they could have had together, for the friends they'd lost. For Howard, for Erskine, for Bucky. After that, they'd spent as much time together as they could, Peggy was the last thing that Steve had left in the world and he was loathe to lose her, especially when he'd found her again after all this time. He'd taken her back to the tower once or twice to introduce her to his team, Pepper had got on with her really well, and Tony had given her a big hug, he knew Peggy very well, it turns out she was over at the Stark's a lot when he was a child. But Steve knew it was over between them, there could never be a 'them', and that broke his heart, but she was there, she was alive, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

_Please review! Next chapter will be featuring Pepper and the SHIELD team again :)_


	9. Chapter 9

_Guess who finally updated? :) I have been ill for TWO WEEKS so that's my excuse, it's ridiculous, I haven't been able to start placement and I think I've annoyed the ward sister._

_ARGH LIFE._

_So anyway, reviews would be like chocolate and rainbows._

_Love you all :)_

_And despite being a student nurse I haven't actually seen a defib being used when someone goes into Cardiac Arrest and the lecture I had on it was aaaages ago so I may have killed someone in this chapter, my bad._

_'I hope I can protect the one thing I can't live without.'_

* * *

'Miss Potts, please stand out of the way.'

That was the last thing Pepper heard as she was ripped away from Tony's side by an agent, her desperate attempts to re-grab his hand proving useless as she was taken outside, desperately trying to fight off the agent and get back to her boyfriend, panic and fear rising in her belly.

'Tony! TONY!'

'Pepper, calm down,' Maria said, gently getting her a chair outside the room and sitting her firmly into it. 'If you're in there you'll just be in the way, give the doctor a chance, they're the best, they know what they're doing.'

'If you say so,' Pepper said, gazing at the closed door. Inside, she could hear someone shouting 'CLEAR' and lots of banging around and voices all talking at once. 'I can't lose him,' Pepper said, looking at her. 'I've lost him too many times already, I can't do it again.'

'I know,' Maria said, laying a hand on her arm. 'But you have to give the team a chance. Tony's strong, he won't give up.'

'I can't lose him,' Pepper repeated. 'I love him.'

'I know,' Maria said softly. 'We all know.

**XxXxXxX**

Once Pepper had been dragged out by Agent Hill, the assembled group of medics went to work, preparing adrenaline solutions and injecting them straight into the arteries, starting chest compressions as the defibrillators were prepared.

'What are the repercussions of shocking Stark?' Penlock asked Fury, nodding at the Arc Reactor.

'I couldn't tell you,' Fury said, eyeing the device. 'It's keeping bits of shrapnel from entering his heart, so it's important it doesn't break. If it does, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.'

Penlock nodded and grabbed the defib paddles, holding them above Tony's chest, adjusting the angle slightly so he wouldn't hit the Arc.

'Charge to 200, clear!'

The bolt of electricity shot through Tony's body, causing him to jump slightly off the table before crashing back down onto it, the Arc flashing angrily at them in annoyance, clearly complaining bitterly about the rough treatment. Across from him, Fury heard someone yell their success as Agent Romanoff came back to life, and somebody else as Bruce came back.

'Charge to 300, clear!'

Again, another surge hit Tony and again, no response. From across the room there was a mighty roar as Thor, being the God of Thunder after all and essentially being on first name basis with anything electric, came back to life very loudly indeed and immediately flinging his hand out for Mjolnir, jumping off the bed and standing in a fighting stance, waiting for someone to attack him. When this didn't happen, Thor stood confused for a moment, and then spotted his teammates and the hurried voices of the medics as they tried to save then. An agent came along and calmly sat him back down on the bed, reassuring him that his friends weren't in any danger.

The Arc was flickering and flashing and did not look happy. Penlock looked at Fury for conformation he wanted him to continue.

'He's dead,' Fury said quietly. 'You certainly can't make him worse.'

Penlock nodded and braced the paddles against Stark's chest for one final time. 'Charge to 360, clear!'

The shock hit his poor battered body one last time, and the world held its breath.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

'We've got a rhythm!' one of the medics said. 'Pulse 47 and climbing.'

'Good,' Penlock said. He pulled his stethoscope out and held it against Stark's chest, leaping about a foot in the air when, instead of a steady heartbeat, the bzzzzzt of the Arc Reactor came into his eardrums. Penlock adjusted the position and listened again, managed to catch the heart beating in amongst the internal sounds of the Arc, slow, but steady and most definitely there.

There were more whoops for joy as Agent Barton and Captain Rogers were successfully revived. Natasha was showing signs of stirring, frowning and squinting up at the ceiling, then immediately looking around for her team. Bruce was being helped into a sitting position, and Thor hopped off the bed to go and talk to him. Fury nodded to himself; they'd done it, all six members of the Avengers were back, now he didn't have to worry about Pepper murdering him for killing her soulmate.

'How are they?' Thor asked, leaving Bruce's side and walking over to him, impatient for answers.

'They appear to be fit and well,' Penlock said. 'We will of course be keeping them under observation. But for now they just need to rest, they've been through a lot.'

'You do not have to tell me that,' Thor said darkly, watching the life flood back into his teammates' faces and Natasha angrily swatting a technician away when he came towards her with a big needle. One look from Fury though, and she relented.

'No,' Penlock agreed. 'I don't.' He turned to one of his assistants. 'If you wouldn't mind, please alert Miss Potts that she can come back in now.'

No sooner had the young medic left the room, Pepper came racing into it, an impressive feat considering she was wearing her usual killer four inch heels. She paid no attention to Thor's greeting, apparently not even hearing it as she ran to Tony's bedside, grasping his hand tightly and placing a hand gently on his cheek, running her eyes up and down his body, checking for signs of life and eventually ending on the Arc, which was flashing dangerously. She frowned, and gently leant down to kiss Tony on the forehead, squeezing his hand.

'Is he okay?' she asked softly to no-one in particular, just anyone who was listening.

As it turned out, Thor was the only one who heard her question, the others were busy packing up their equipment and writing up care plans and observation charts for the six of them. He crossed the room to stand at her side, ignoring the medics' eye rolls, they'd _specifically _told him to _not _get up and move around, but considering he literally came from legend they really didn't want to argue. That and his arms were _really _big.

'He'll be fine,' Thor said, placing a hand softly on Pepper's shoulder. He opened his mouth as if to say something, and then decided against it, instead saying, 'he really loves you, you know.'

Pepper smiled softly and pushed Tony's hair away from his forehead. 'I know,' she said, smiling at his soft, relaxed face. 'I know.'

**XxXxXxX**

_Ooooh I like this feeling. This is a good feeling. It's a 'shut your brain off can't think of anything important feeling' but other than that it's gooooood._

_Ah drugs, gotta love 'em, wondering what they're pumping me full of this time?_

Then Tony's sense of smell kicked in and he was suddenly made aware of the vast number of cleaning products that were currently in use and the slight detergent smell and itchiness of whatever he was lying on.

_Hospital. Fucking perfect. Pepper knows I hate hospitals. Pepper? Why am I in a hospital?_

_Pepper?_

Tony fought through the drug addled rescues of his brain in an attempt to wake himself up, but all that came out of his mouth was a funny 'hhrgh' sound, his eyes staying resolutely shut as the drugs attempted to pull his brain back down in unconscious-land.

'Ssh, Tony. Go back to sleep, I'll still be here when you wake up, I promise.'

The gently sensation of a cool hand running through his hair and a soft, familiar, pair of lips kissing him lightly on the cheek.

_Pepper?_

_Pepper._

_Knew you couldn't resist me. _

**XxXxXxX**

When Bruce came too, he was surprised and delighted to find Betty Ross sitting by his bed, watching him and smiling.

'Hey,' she said softly. 'Pepper called me, said you were in trouble.'

'You could say that,' Bruce croaked out. 'What happened?'

'They gave you the antidote and you all went into cardiac arrest,' Betty explained. 'The medics managed to bring you all back though, thank goodness.'

Bruce frowned. 'What about Tony? They didn't use a defib did they? The Arc can't stand high volts of electricity like that.'

Betty frowned. 'I'm not sure, he's fine though, Pepper is with him. I heard that Thor zapped him with lightening? The Arc was fine then.'

'The Arc in the suit isn't connected to Tony's chest anymore,' Bruce explained. 'The lightening would have focused on the closest electrical conduit, being the external Arc not the internal one. Someone needs to warn Pepper, they need to change Tony's chest piece right away.'

**XxXxXxX**

Unbeknownst to Bruce and Betty, Pepper had become something of a self-proclaimed expert at keeping Tony Stark alive, even though most of the time she wanted nothing more than to murder him herself. Needless to say, once Pepper had noticed the Arc Reactor seemed to have no plans to stop flashing and Tony's heartbeat had dropped dangerously low, she had called Jane, asking her to bring a spare over from the tower when she came to see Thor. She was now carefully unscrewing the old chest plate, minding her fingers as it sparked when she pulled it out of the groove in Tony's chest.

'This is going to hurt a little,' she told him softly. 'I need to change the chest piece over; I'll be as quick as I can.'

Tony gave a short sharp moan when Pepper unplugged the reactor from his chest. She'd muted the medical equipment surrounding her so the medics wouldn't come bursting into the room when all hell broke loose. With expert fingers, Pepper carefully plugged the new reactor into the baseplate, sending Tony flying a few centimeters off the bed then crashing back down onto it, his breathing more controlled and the Arc a warm blue light in his chest.

Pepper unmuted the equipment and watched his heart rate slowly returning to normal as the colour seeped back into his skin. She played with the end of the old Arc, bringing it up to her eye to examine. It was a complete work of art, beautifully made, every piece perfectly in its place, all the wires neatly arranged around each other and the Starkonium element in the middle (he hadn't been allowed to call it "Badassium" and she hadn't _let _him called it "Pepperidium") glowing brightly, aside from the occasional flicker due to the fried circuits.

Contrary to popular belief, when you work for someone like Tony Stark for as long as she had, you learn a _lot _about electronics and science-y stuff, more than she wanted to in all honesty, although occasionally it came in handy, especially when one faulty fuse had blown out _all _her lights at 10 o'clock at night.

'Ow,' came a voice from the bed.

Pepper looked down at her boyfriend who was peering up at her through half-lidded eyes and smiled. 'Hey, you,' she said, squeezing his hand tightly. 'Welcome back.'

'Knew you'd save me,' Tony said, grinning weakly. 'You always do.'

'I try my best,' Pepper said, kissing him gently on the lips.

'How is everyone?' he asked, sounding concerned.

'Mr Stark, are you _worried_?' Pepper teased. 'That's not like you.'

Tony pulled a face at her and she smiled. 'They're fine, all of them. Last I heard Natasha was giving the doctors hell for not letting her leave, literally, I could hear her yelling from down the corridor. Thor is already up and walking around, Clint is firing paper projectiles at the ceiling, Bruce is with Betty and Steve is watching _Calamity Jane.'_

'I just blew in from the windy city,' Tony sang softly.

Pepper smiled at him and kissed him again, then hugged him tightly. 'I swear to Thor I am never letting you out of my sight ever again,' she told him. 'You get into too much trouble without me.'

'No complaints from me,' Tony mumbled, falling asleep again.

'Didn't think there would be,' Pepper responded, playing with his hair as the pain medication from, essentially, being electrocuted dragged him back under.

'Just don't do that again,' she whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder and watching his chest rise up and down as he breathed softly in and out.

**XxXxXxX**

The next day found all six superheroes and their significant others crammed into Tony's room draped across several pieces of furniture and each other, watching loads of movies (they were currently on Steve's copy of _Calamity Jane_)and eating large amounts of junk food. The others had all been discharged, but Tony was keeping kept ('Imprisoned! Come on Pepperpot get me out of here!' 'You're staying here till you're better, now turn the puppy eyes off they're not going to work.') in the medical bay under observation until Dr Penlock was certain he wasn't about to have a heart attack when he stood up.

Amidst the usual bickering and insults flying at each other, the team was more subdued than normal and a heck of a lot quieter, the insults were old ones and weren't as well thought up as usual. Pepper, Jane and Betty had noticed and were giving them all a strange look. They'd each tried to convince their other halves to talk to them about what they'd seen, but they remained stubbornly quiet and un-cooperative.

'Did Midgardians really dress like that?' Thor asked, eyebrow raised as he observed the strange leather tassels of the characters.

Eight pairs of eyes questioned his sanity and the tight body armour he was currently wearing.

'Honestly you're one to talk,' Clint said. 'I bet Asgardians dress just as strangely as they did in the Wild West.'

'Asgardian body armour is made to show the warrior's strength and bravery in battle,' Thor said, puffing his chest out. 'And their standing in court.'

'So because you're a prince you get to wear curtains? What do the peasants wear? Clingfilm?' Tony said.

Clint chuckled and Pepper elbowed him in the ribs.

'Clingfilm?' Thor said, looking confused. 'I do not understand.'

'It's a very expensive and precious fabric,' Tony explained, earning himself another elbow in the ribs from Pepper. He pouted at her and Jane giggled. Thor was now wearing the expression of one who didn't want the universe to end and Natasha was rolling her eyes at her teammate's immature antics.

Betty watched the expressions of the Avengers very carefully, then looked at Pepper who nodded subtly at her. Their expressions were forced, the usual spark in Tony's eyes was gone, Clint was staring blankly at the opposite wall, Natasha was avoiding eye contact with everyone, Bruce kept twiddling his thumbs, Thor kept jiggling his leg and had been polishing Mjolnir since the film started and showed no sign of stopping and Steve had become very interested in the spider in the corner of the ceiling. Betty was interested in it too, but only because she was terrified of it landing on her head. Natasha had said 'hello' to it when she spotted it, which had scared them all slightly. The thought of Natasha being able to control spiders was _not _appealing to any of them.

'Guys,' Jane said, carefully. 'What happened?'

There was dead silence, with the exception of Doris Day as she sang 'Hive Full of Honey.'

'Stuff,' Clint answered when the awkward silence got too much for him. 'Some stuff happened, but we're fine.'

Tony leant his head on Pepper's shoulder and she squeezed his fingers. It was an unspoken signal that he _wasn't _fine. Tony rarely sought comfort from others, sure he could be affectionate, Pepper knew that better than anyone, but actually looking for someone to take care of him was rare and was always a clear sign that he was upset and feeling vulnerable, which he hated.

The team didn't speak again, aside from the occasional quip and comment on the film and _Thor for crying out loud stood jiggling your leg you're going to cause an earthquake _from basically everyone there was silence, in which Tony fell asleep on Pepper's shoulder, Natasha fell asleep on Clint, Steve and Bruce disappeared and Thor managed to get Mjolnir sparkling and squeaky clean.

The team dis-assembled once the film had finished, Clint waking up a groggy Natasha and Pepper gently sliding Tony's head off her shoulder and onto his pillow, kissing his cheek and disappearing to go speak to Jane and Betty, who were waiting for her in the hallway.

'What do we do?' Betty asked, worried. 'I haven't seen Bruce this agitated since he found vials of his blood in a lab.'

'Thor isn't being his usual boisterous self either,' Jane admitted. 'And Tony is quieter than usual.'

Pepper nodded, chewing her bottom lip then stopping when she remembered all the teasing she used to get from Tony when he first discovered that was her 'stressing out right now' tell.

'Do we get them to talk to each other?' Jane asked.

Pepper shrugged. '_Can _we?' she said. 'They're six of the most stubborn people I've ever met, with the exception of maybe Bruce. Tony didn't even tell me he was _dying; _I don't think I can get him to talk to the others.'

'He was dying?' Betty asked, confused.

'That's a story for another occasion,' Pepper promised. 'But they won't talk to each other, not without force.'

'We should try and work out who was paired with who,' Betty said. 'Then get them in the same room as the other, they may open up around them?'

'Sounds good,' Jane said, and Pepper nodded her agreement.

'I think Tony was with Natasha,' Pepper said. 'When he was getting worse, Natasha's facial expressions were changing; she actually looked worried at one point.'

'Okay,' Jane said. 'And I think Thor was with Clint, they were stealing glances at each other throughout that entire movie.'

'Which means Steve was with Bruce,' Betty said. 'Okay, how do we get them to talk to each other?'

'I'll talk to Natasha,' Pepper said. 'I know her pretty well; I think I can get her to listen to me. Natasha will probably be able to talk to Clint.'

'And I'll try and talk to Bruce,' Betty said. 'Either that or I'll lock him and Steve in a cupboard or something.'

Jane chuckled and the three girls nodded at each other, then they heard Tony scream. Jane and Betty were about to sprint into the room but Pepper put a hand on their arms. 'It's okay,' she said. 'I shouldn't have left him alone in the state he's in, I can deal with this.'

The two girls looked uncertain, but nodded and walked off down the corridor, stealing glances over their shoulders as Pepper ducked back into Tony's room, closing the door firmly behind her.

Tony looked pale and shivery when Pepper reached his side, and she wasted no time in getting rid of her shoes and jacket and climbing into bed with him, snaking an arm under his head. Tony immediately turned onto his side to face her and wrapped his arm tightly around her waist, burying his face in her neck and unconsciously seeking her out.

Well aware that she probably shouldn't be in bed with him and that the Helicarrier's hospital policy on infection control was going out the window right now, Pepper cuddled up against him and stroked his hair until his breathing evened out. Pretty soon, she was asleep too.

**XxXxXxX**

'Hey, Bruce,' Betty said, tapping lightly at the door of the laboratory where the ScienceBro's had first worked together, and where Bruce was now currently staring out the window at the 'wishbone' of the Helicarrier, watching the stars twinkling brightly in the sky.

Bruce looked up at the door and unlocked it by tapping a screen on his left. Betty stepped quietly into the room and stood at his side.

'You want me to talk to the others,' Bruce said, reading her mood.

Betty nodded softly. 'You're all a mess,' she said. 'I don't know what happened and part of me doesn't want too, but Pepper and Jane and I all agree, the only way you're going to achieve any kind of normalcy is to talk to each other about what happened.'

'I'm not sure the others would agree,' Bruce said, not meeting her eyes.

Betty stood directly in front of him and tilted his chin up so he didn't have a choice. 'Maybe if you just talk to Steve,' she said gently. 'Pepper is going to try and get Natasha to talk to Tony and she's hoping Natasha will persuade Clint to talk to Thor.'

Bruce frowned. 'How do you know who we were all paired up with?' he asked, confused.

Betty smiled softly. 'You don't need to have Tony Stark's IQ to figure it out,' she said. 'Plus, you and Steve were staring at each other throughout the whole of _Hercules_, having some kind of internal discussion.'

_Hercules _had been Natasha's choice, who decided she'd had enough of listening to Clint complaining about the archery in _Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves _and Steve moaning about all the slang words he didn't understand in basically all the films and had decided a nice Disney movie would be best. She was right. They all shut up and enjoyed the film, and there may have been some sing-a-longs to the songs as well, although all of them would deny it.

'Okay,' Bruce said quietly. 'I'll talk to Steve tomorrow. But I think we should keep him away from Tony for a while, I doubt he wants to talk about Howard right now.'

Betty frowned. 'Howard? Howard Stark?'

Bruce nodded. 'We had flashbacks of past memories, and a couple didn't put Howard in a very good light, so it would be best to stop Steve from questioning Tony, that's the last thing he needs right now. That and Pepper will probably stab him with her shoe if he upsets him.'

Betty smiled and nodded her agreement. 'Okay,' she said. 'We'll keep Steve away from Tony.'

**XxXxXxX**

'Can we stay in bed all day tomorrow and watch Disney films?' Clint asked Natasha, who was currently curled up against his side and enjoying the sensation of him running his fingers through her short red hair while they watched _Megamind _in her room. They weren't in a relationship per se, but they were best friends, not just partners, and could read each other like a book.

'Yes, we can totally stay in bed and watch Disney films,' Natasha promised.

There was a comfortable silence while the two assassins watched the movie, then Clint said, 'do you think we're going to be made to talk to the others about what happened?'

Natasha nodded. 'Almost definitely,' she said. 'Either by Fury or Cap.'

'We need to stop Steve from going after Tony,' Clint said. 'At least for a couple of days.'

'I wouldn't be surprised if Pepper wasn't already on that,' Natasha said. 'You know how fiercely protective she is.'

Clint nodded, and then grinned. 'That reminds me of the time in Paris when we were chasing that drug lord, remember? And I got beat up really bad and Fury was after me because I hadn't handed my paperwork in and you hid me in your room for ages until I felt better.'

Natasha chuckled. 'You and I remember Paris very differently,' she said. 'But hiding from Fury is always fun.'

The credits rolled up as the movie ended, and Natasha turned the screen off.

'You're not going to kick me out, are you?' Clint asked.

'No, Clint,' Natasha said softly, pulling the duvet up over them both. 'I'm not going to kick you out.'

There was silence as Strike Team Delta finally began to fall asleep, then Clint said sleepily, 'we're a dysfunctional bunch, aren't we?'

Natasha smiled in the dark. 'Yes, we are,' she agreed. 'But it's nothing company and vast quantities of Ben & Jerry's can't fix.'

'Is that a hint?'

'Damn right.'

'I'll take the Quinjet out for a spin tomorrow.'

'You're the best.'

'I know.'

'You better get enough for the whole team or they'll complain.'

'Industrial quantities of Ben & Jerry's it is.'

* * *

_'Got a lot of apologies to make. Nothing's been the same since New York.'_

_Please review! :D :D_


	10. Chapter 10

_Sorry I haven't updated in foreverrrr! But I'm home for the Christmas holidays now and have no work to do so all my stories will be getting updated! :D :D I'm going to try and round this one off in the next couple of chapters and am toying with the idea of a kind-of sequel :)_

_As ever, please read and review my darlings and I will try to get back to all of you :)_

_HAPPY CHRISTMASSSS :D :D_

* * *

When Tony next woke up, it was to the sight of a concerned and worried looking Pepper Potts sitting up and leaning over him with her hands on either side of his face, gently stroking his sweaty skin.

'Huh?' Tony said; never very articulate when he'd just woken up, blinking the nightmare out of his mind and replacing it with his girlfriend's beautiful face. Worryingly, it hadn't been one of his nightmares, from the gunfire and the smoke and the feeling of his too long red hair being in the way he guessed it was one of Natasha's.

'Is there something you want to tell me?' Pepper asked, laying back down onto his chest and holding him tightly, tracing the rim of the Arc Reactor with one finger. The sky outside the window was still black and the stars were obscured by clouds as the Helicarrier moved silently through the sky.

Tony turned his head and burrowed his face into her hair, breathing in her safe warm scent and feeling his heart slow as his body relaxed. 'What do you mean?' he asked, kissing the top of her head then using it as a cheek-rest, running one hand lazily up and down her arm.

'You kept moaning,' Pepper said softly, eyes closed but not sounding particularly sleepy.

'That's nothing new, especially when you're here,' Tony said cheekily, earning himself a nudge in the ribs.

'I wouldn't have been worried, except you kept moaning "Clint",' Pepper said, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. 'Hence why I asked if there was something you wanted to tell me.'

Something must have changed in his face because Pepper was suddenly instantly sat up and staring at him.

'Tony?' she said softly. 'What's the matter?'

Tony pulled her back down onto the bed and wiggled down so he was lying next to her, one arm under her head and the other around her waist, pulling her to him and playing with her hair. Pepper recognised this as his stress relief, it used to be drinking, and now it was playing with her hair. She could always tell if something was wrong if he suddenly sat next to her, pulled her onto his lap and started playing with her hair.

'It wasn't my dream,' Tony said quietly after a pause, plaiting a few strands of her hair. Where he'd learnt to plait, she didn't ask.

'Natasha?' Pepper asked. She felt him nod.

'I saw a couple of hers in the quarantine; I guess the drug isn't completely out of my system yet.'

There was a moments silence as Tony un-plaited her hair, tangled his fingers in it and closed his eyes, resting his forehead against hers. Pepper could feel the steady beat of his heart under his t-shirt and she gently placed her hand on it, stroking the Arc's casing absentmindedly with her thumb.

Tony's eyes opened again and he drew a breath, a sign that whatever it was he was about to say, Pepper may or may not like it. Usually it was the latter, but occasionally he surprised her.

'Pepper…' he started, then faltered and frowned, obviously having an internal conflict.

Pepper tilted his chin slightly so his brown eyes met her blue ones. There was something in them, something she didn't see very often. Instead of his usual cocky self-assurance, he actually looked afraid. Afraid of what Pepper wasn't sure, but judging by the way his grip on her hair and waist tightened softly, she could safely assume it had something to do with her leaving.

'Yes Tony?' she said gently, stroking his cheek as assurance that she was there, and she wasn't going anywhere.

Tony drew another breath then looked her square in the eye.

'I love you.'

There was a pause while Pepper processed what he'd said and Tony looking worried but still held her gaze. Pepper wasn't sure how to take it. Yes, she cared about him and yes he meant the world to her but the first and _only _time she had ever heard him say he loved anything, he'd been talking to a bacon sandwich. So surely that meant something if he wasn't the kind of person dropping the 'L' word every five minutes?

Pepper remembered the hug she'd given him when he came back from Afghanistan, after the press conference fiasco and before he'd left to go home. She'd walked up to him and asked him carefully and jokingly if she needed to schedule a meeting with a psychiatrist. He'd chuckled and run one hand through his hair then grinned at her.

'Like I need one,' he'd said. 'You keep me sane, Peps.'

Then she'd responded with 'I do my best' and had given him a brief hug. It wasn't the first time she'd hugged him, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but this hug was different. He'd wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly like he was afraid that if he let go she would fade away. It was quite a long hug too; she'd intended it to be brief but Tony had other ideas. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly? She still wasn't sure) it hadn't been awkward. They'd held each other for a few moments, then they let go and continued their lives, Pepper going to the office to write a press release, and Tony going home to sit in his empty house and contemplate existence.

Then Pepper remembered how her heart had flown up her chest and out into the air when she'd seen him fall through the portal on the TV, unconscious, unmoving, dead for all she knew, and she remembered the feeling that something precious had been taken from her. Then she remembered the sensation of his soft lips against hers and his warm arms wrapped safely around her waist when she found him again afterwards, bruised, battered, but very much alive. Just the two of them in their own little world, blocking out the four confused looking Avengers stood behind them (Natasha of course being the exception, who was frowning at her fingernails and mentally reminding herself to book a manicure).

Question: Tony Stark had just told her he loved her, was he lying?

Soft passionate kisses, warm safe embraces, falling asleep entangled in each other's arms on the sofa, movie nights with Ben and Jerry's, going to sleep and waking up naked and not feeling ashamed about it, sleepy cuddles, cooking together, eating together, disguising each other and sneaking off to the movies where they kissed in the back row like teenagers, walking down the street (and occasionally through the corridors of Stark Industries) hand-in-hand and not caring who saw or how many pictures were taken, kissing in public then giggling about it afterwards, lazy Sunday afternoons lying on their bed using each other as tables and finishing paperwork, up-against-the-wall-legs-wrapped-round-his-waist kissing, trying to make Rhodey feel uncomfortable by making out in front of him, whispered declarations of adoration, falling asleep in each other's arms, waking up in each other's arms, making Steve feel uncomfortable by kissing in front of him, dancing round the living room to old jazz hits, flirting outrageously in front of employees to make _them _feel uncomfortable, photoshopping pictures of the Avengers with stupid captions, singing along to the radio way too loudly, picnics on the roof under the stars, sending stupid pictures to Fury, mucking around on live video conferences, pillow fights, food shopping at midnight and enjoying the confused look on everyone's faces, playing in the toy section, sitting on the sofas in the entertainment section and watching a bit of a movie on the TV's, Wii Mario contests, doing the Coke-and-Mentos experiment then turning it into a rocket and shooting it out the window.

Answer: No, he wasn't lying.

Pepper realised she'd left Tony waiting a bit too long with her internal monologue and he'd now gone from looking worried to looking flat out _terrified. _So she bent her head forwards and caught his lips in a passionate kiss, wrapping one arm around his waist and running her fingers through his hair as her tongue traced his and her body lit up like it was on fire.

When they pulled away, both breathing heavily, Tony's eyes were bright and shining and his skin was flushed. Pepper pressed one last kiss against his swollen lips then smiled. 'Oh Tony,' she said. 'I love you too.'

Needless to say, despite the fact Tony was on bed rest and wasn't supposed to engage in strenuous amounts of exercise, the camera in the corner of the room was hacked into and turned off (luckily the agents on the bridge had closed the screen to give the couple some privacy so they didn't notice) and neither of them got much sleep that night.

**XxXxXxX**

Clint got up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Natasha was warm beside him and at some point in the night they'd changed positions so she was lying on her side and he was spooning her, one arm under her head. But despite the security he felt lying with her in his arms, his body was buzzing and sleep was eluding him.

The Helicarrier was quiet, only the sleepy glances of the night staff as they worked witness to his insomnia, and that in itself was nothing new. The training room was empty and Clint enjoyed the silence as he turned the lights on and pulled his quiver onto his back, setting up the targets and relishing in the feel of his bow strong and sturdy in his hand. He pulled two arrows from his quiver and fitted them onto the bow string slowly, enjoying the feel of the familiar burn in his muscles as he pulled the string back, took aim, and released.

The two arrows hit their targets bang-on the bullseye of the two separate targets. Clint felt that rush flow through him just like it always did when his aim was perfect, which it always was. He continued in the training room for a few more hours as the sun came up, firing arrow after arrow and every time hitting the target perfectly. It took a few more moments before he realised he was being watched and glancing up into the rafters above his head, he spotted Natasha crouched, watching him.

'You need to sleep,' she told him sternly.

Clint shrugged. 'You snore, Nat.'

That one earned him a pillow straight to the face and a hissed 'I do not!' Clint realised guiltily that the only reason Natasha would _have _a pillow is if she'd been up there for some time.

Clint turned back to the targets and loaded another arrow, shooting it perfectly. 'I didn't mean to wake you,' he said.

'You have the grace and elegance of a baby giraffe when you wake up,' Natasha quipped, eyebrow raised.

Clint didn't argue.

There was silence for a few minutes while Clint continued to shoot arrow after arrow, each time hitting the targets dead centre until eventually he ran out of arrows and had to collect them from the bullseye of each of the targets.

'We can't ignore this,' Natasha whispered, so quietly Clint was surprised he heard her.

'Ignore what?' he asked, though he knew what she meant.

'What happened to us,' Natasha said. 'We can't ignore that. The others now know more about us then we want them too, and vice versa.'

'Unless you're suggesting we somehow wipe their memories, there's nothing we can do about that,' Clint said, picking up a towel and wiping his sweaty face with it, reloading his quiver with the arrows he'd pulled from the targets.

Natasha said nothing for a few minutes, and then suddenly she was there in front of him, taking the quiver out of his hands and wrapping her arms around him. Clint responded, gently holding her and resting his cheek on the top of her head.

'We need to sleep,' Natasha said. 'We still have a few more hours left before dawn; we can talk more in the morning.'

Clint said nothing, but he nodded and the two of them walked back to his room arm in arm and were asleep in seconds.

**XxXxXxX**

Natasha woke a few hours later and kept her eyes screwed tightly closed as she tried to block out the images of Obadiah's Iron Monger armour pointing a gun barrel at a terrified Pepper and tried to suppress the emotions that came with it because she _did not have feelings that strong for Pepper._

Once Tony's nightmare and the emotional trauma that went with it had faded from her mind she climbed out of bed to shower and dress. Outside the window, the sun had risen and the cloud coverage had gone, so she could see the rays of light reflecting on the water below.

Leaving Clint still asleep in bed, Natasha climbed out onto the deck and sat on the side on the Helicarrier, well away from the rotors as she watched the sun climb higher and higher into the sky.

She was joined a few minutes later by Pepper, who handed up a mug of hot coffee and silently sat beside her, seeming perfectly content to sit in silence.

But Natasha was a spy, the best at her job and she knew exactly why Pepper was there, within a few seconds of her sitting down Natasha knew her mood and the question that was playing on her mind.

'You want me to talk to Tony about what happened,' Natasha said, not looking at her but staring out across the ocean.

Pepper nodded. She knew Natasha well enough to not be surprised that she'd guessed the reason she was there. There was a reason Tony had taken to maintaining a blank facial expression every time she was in the same room as him, not that it made any difference. Tony's emotions could be read in his eyes just as easily as his face.

Natasha tilted her head at her, reading her expression, and then looked back out at the post-dawn sky.

'Okay,' she said. 'I'll talk to Tony. We'll figure something out.'

Pepper smiled. 'Thank you,' she said, softly. 'I really appreciate it. Do you think maybe you could ask Clint to talk to Thor? Everyone is avoiding each other, it's uncomfortable.'

Natasha said nothing but she nodded again and Pepper said goodbye and stood up to go back onto the deck, leaving Natasha to her coffee and her thoughts.

**XxXxXxX**

When Natasha made it back inside the Helicarrier a few hours later, she was pleased to find Tony and Clint lying in the Recreational Room playing Mario Kart Wii and arguing with each other over the amount of bananas that was getting thrown around. Thor and Jane were sat on the other sofa eating Pop Tarts.

'They let you out then?' Natasha said, plonking herself down next to them and picking up that morning's paper, the scrawled numbers in the Sudoku section indicating that Tony had already read it.

'Yep,' Tony said distractedly, trying to manipulate his car so it would crash straight into Clint's. 'Oh and Pep?' he called out as she entered the room. 'I'm breaking up with you.'

'Okay,' Pepper said, not sounding particularly bothered and seating herself down next to him; picking up a book which had been left discarded on the coffee table. 'How come?'

'I'm madly in love with Captain America,' Tony explained. 'We're adopting Spider-Man and raising him as our own.'

Thor and Jane were giving the pair very odd looks at this, but Natasha and Clint didn't seem bothered and Clint let out a cheer as he successfully forced Tony's car off the road and over a cliff.

Unfortunately, Steve had entered the room in time to hear this and was now stood in the doorway like a rabbit in the headlights, clearly unsure as to what the protocol was here.

'That's okay,' Pepper said. 'I appreciate you being honest with me; in fact I think it's only fair to tell you that Natasha and I have been married for a few weeks now and are considering adopting.'

Tony sighed. 'I knew it,' he said. 'I always knew there was something going on with you two.'

Spotting Steve, Tony leant back on the sofa and winked at him, waggling his eyes suggestively and Pepper and Natasha held hands and smiled sweetly at him. Jane had figured out the joke and was smiling but Thor looking confused and Steve looked like he was a few seconds away from hurling himself out of the window.

'Oh please,' Tony muttered, pulling his girlfriend onto his lap and planting a kiss firmly on her lips, throwing the paper in Steve's general direction where that week's 'Gossip Column' indicated Natasha and Pepper's nuptials and mentioned Steve and Tony's relationship.

Steve's eyebrows rose so high into his hairline that Bruce gave him a concerned glance when he walked in for a coffee refill.

'We've broken Steve already?' he said, surprised. 'I think this is a record. What did you do to him?'

'Got married,' Tony said, shrugging like it's no big thing. 'We've been in love for some time now.'

'I'm happy for you both,' Bruce said, nodding seriously at him. 'And Pepper? How do you feel about all this?'

Pepper was still sat on Tony's lap but wrapped an arm around Natasha who actually kissed her cheek. 'I don't mind,' she said. 'I have Natasha to come home to every night.'

Bruce raised his coffee mug in a mock salute to the two couples and Jane started to explain the situation to Thor when he looked like his face had actually broken. Tony and Clint were impressed; they didn't know that facial expression _existed. _

Dr Penlock came in approximately half an hour later to clear all of the Avengers medically fit, but banning them all from active duty for a week. None of them were particularly bothered; they were watching Natasha and Clint fence in Wii Sports. Even though they were effectively just waving their arms around it was still the most terrifying thing they'd ever seen.

The group arrived back at Stark Tower via a Quinjet at approximately eight pm that evening and Pepper dragged Tony straight to bed. Although he'd been cleared by medical, the drug's effect on him had left his body and his heart completely exhausted, and both needed a good night's sleep to recharge. Bruce did have the presence of mind to stick a heart monitor on his chest before Pepper dragged him off and now the group were watching _Elementary _while Tony's cardiac rhythm flashed cheerfully across the screen next to it.

It took a while for Clint and Thor to notice that they were the only two left awake. Steve had retired a few moments previously and Natasha had fallen asleep curled up on the sofa. Jane had fallen asleep on Thor and Bruce had retreated to the lab to run some more tests on the drug in an attempt to determine what exactly was in it. Why, no-one was sure, but Bruce was restless and Betty had been curious so that's where they were.

Clint was perfectly happy to continue to watch the program in companionable silence, but Thor seemed uneasy and Clint realised he couldn't let that slip. Plus, Natasha had mentioned to him before they boarded the Quinjet that maybe it was a good idea to try and talk to him to sort out the emotional mess the six of them were currently in.

'You know that I don't like Loki,' Clint said quietly, causing Thor's attention to focus on him at once. 'But even I think that having your mouth sewn shut is a bit much.'

Thor sighed. 'Loki has done wrong,' he said. 'And by law for such an act of treason he should be put to death. Although I don't agree with the punishment my father chose _at all, _I must admit that it was the kinder alternative.'

Clint couldn't argue with his reasoning, although the image of Loki with the thread taunt through his mouth made him feel a little sick inside.

'Who was the girl?' he asked. 'I can't remember her name… Hela? She called him "father"?'

'Hela is Loki's daughter,' Thor said. 'She is the Goddess of Death, the ruler of Helheim- the Underworld.'

'And her face?' Clint said, gesturing to his own. 'What happened there? It looks like her flesh has all rotten away.'

'She was cursed,' Thor explained, seemingly perfectly happy to talk about his niece. 'Cursed by Odin, it is a long story, but now half of her body is dead while the other remains young and beautiful.'

'She loves Loki,' Clint said, a statement rather than a question.

'They are very close,' Thor said. 'Hela was banished from Asgard, again it's a long story but my mother lets her in occasionally so she can meet with her father.'

'Your mother seems awesome,' Clint said.

Thor smiled. 'She is,' he said. 'The love and devotion she has shown for Loki throughout the years, raising him as her own when he is the son of Asgard's sworn enemy… she is a wonderful woman.'

The two continued talking late into the night and Clint even opened up about Barney a little and described some of his life while he was in the circus, which was something he had never spoken about, apart from Natasha. Speaking of which, when he bade Thor goodnight and stood up to go to bed, she winked at him, then closed her eyes again and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

_Please review! Hope you enjoyed it :) More coming soon :)_

_So basically the outline for the sort-of sequel goes like this:_

_- Thanos wants to take over the world and the Avengers are all like HAHAHANOFUCKINGWAY._

_- Tony and Clint take a trip to the underworld and meet Hela who is all like 'WTF?'_

_- Pepper gets to be a BAMF_

_- Hela saves the day a couple of times and yells at Odin._

_- And loads of other cool stuff :)_

_Let me know what you think! :D_


	11. Epliogue

_THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER AND IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO WRITE._

_LIFE._

_Anyway, caps lock aside I hope you enjoy the thrilling(?) conclusion to Dream Quarantine, thank you very very much for everyone who stuck with it and favourite and reviewed and made me happy with your messages of love ^_^_

_If I could ask, one more time, please review :)_

_See you in the New Year! :D_

* * *

Tony was in the kitchen when Natasha walked in early the next morning in search of coffee.

He was sat at the kitchen island cradling a mug of the hot dark liquid in one hand and flicking through that morning's news on his tablet with the other.

'Morning,' he said, still sounding half asleep.

Natasha grunted in reply, never very articulate first thing in the morning. She was a lot like Tony in that way, if she hadn't had her coffee, don't say anything to her, just hand her a mug and leave the room until she was more awake. Clint had learnt this lesson the hard way.

Once Natasha had drained her cup and Tony had started his second, or third, she'd lost count, she took a seat at his elbow in order to watch the news headlines as they flashed across the screen.

'Anything exciting?' she asked.

Tony shook his head. 'Not particularly,' he replied. 'Senator Stern still wants our blood over the Loki Incident, the president _really _needs to train that dog, and everyone still believes that Steve and I are madly in love. I mean, _seriously.'_

Natasha chuckled and the two of them fell into a very in-depth conversation about how exactly a master assassin and a genius MIT graduate would go about training a dog. Bruce walked in during a discussion about whether Tony could actually create a collar that gave the dog the power of speech like the one in _Up, _and immediately walked out again, deciding it was far too early for this nonsense.

They'd lulled into comfortable silence at this point, Tony playing Tetris on his tablet and Natasha drinking her coffee and gazing out the window. But there was an elephant in the room; it doesn't take a genius and a master assassin to work that one out.

'I have claustrophobia,' Natasha says after a while. Tony's been expecting her to say something so he immediately looks up at her, eyebrow raised inquisitively.

'You have aquaphobia, I have claustrophobia,' Natasha clarifies, referring to his water torture at the hands of the Ten Rings.

If Tony's surprised she's talking about her past he hides it well. He isn't sure if he should say anything, but he can read in Natasha's body language that she wants him to say something, so he does.

'What happened?' he asked, turning the tablet off and giving his teammate his full attention.

Natasha gives him a look, sees that he's paying attention to her, and starts talking.

'I was on a mission with Clint in Egypt,' she said. 'It was a simple extraction. A few days previously a group of SHIELD agents had gone missing out there and the one that made it back told us they were being tortured for information, so Fury sent Clint and I out to get them back. We made it to the house they were being held in, and after disposing of the guards Clint went down to get the agents out and I went upstairs to find the man responsible, except…' she trailed off and looked out the window at the city for a few seconds, then back at Tony, who was watching her carefully. 'I wasn't fast enough,' she said quietly. 'He hit me over the head with something, knocked me out. When I came too, I was lying in a container or something with my hands and feet bound and a gag over my mouth. He'd locked one of the dead guards in there with me and I…' Natasha swallowed and looked Tony dead in the eye. 'I was in there for days with no food or drink,' she said. 'Waiting for someone to find me. And that guard's body started to decompose and he started to rot and it was the single most frightening moment of my entire life. I don't remember being in that fire, I was too young, but being locked in that cramped hole with that corpse… I can remember everything.'

She'd gone very pale and Tony took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. 'It's okay,' he said quietly. 'You don't have to tell me.'

Natasha smiled weakly at him. 'When Clint found me I was delirious and nearly dead,' she finished. 'He refused to give up on me. I was found in one of the men's safehouses locked in an empty rusting old freezer. Clint took me back to base and nursed me back to life, the SHIELD medics didn't think I'd make it but he was determined I proved him wrong.' She smiled softly. 'He seems to think he owes me something when really… he owes me nothing, I owe him my life.'

'I'd give you my opinion but I don't think you'd agree with me,' Tony said, and Natasha knows exactly what he means.

'You've been around Pepper too much,' she said, smiling.

'She is a bad influence on me,' Tony said sighing and finishing off his coffee.

Natasha went back to staring out the window and Tony drummed his fingers on the table, and then spoke up.

'The first time I was in the shower after Afghanistan I screamed so loudly Pepper came running,' he said.

Natasha looked over at him with a raised eyebrow so he continues.

'I didn't know about the aquaphobia,' he said. 'I didn't know the effect being submerged in water would have on me. Anyway, Pepper finds me curled up in the shower buck naked, shivering, and crying. I don't really remember any of this but Pepper wouldn't lie,' he said. 'I woke up in bed with Rhodey giving me a funny look and Pepper looking terrified in the doorway.'

'I'm assuming you're okay in the shower now?' Natasha asks.

'As long as I'm not stood directly under it I'm fine,' Tony said. 'But I think Pepper was afraid to let me go back in the shower after that.'

'She deserves a raise,' Natasha said.

'I gave her my company,' Tony said, eyebrow raised at her.

'Point taken.'

And the two of them fall back into a relaxed, comfortable silence.

At about 8am, Tony stood up and turned the coffee machine back on, finding some bacon in the fridge and dumping the lot into a frying pan. Natasha was about to berate him over the amount of coffee he drank, but he handed it to a well-rested looking Pepper Potts when she came in a couple of minutes later, joining her fellow red-head at the island and putting each other's arms round one another when Steve and Clint walked in, drawn by the smell of bacon.

Thor and Jane appeared about five minutes later both smiling about something and Bruce came in a few seconds after that, deciding it was safe to reappear now Iron Man and Black Widow had ceased their dog collar conversation.

'Where's Betty?' Pepper asked, piling a mound of bread rolls into a basket and setting it on the table, then hunting in the fridge for the Tomato Ketchup.

'She had to get back to the lab,' Bruce said. 'She's doing a presentation on the structure of gamma cells when exposed to high quantities of radiation.'

'Sounds good,' Tony said. Coming from anyone else, this would have sounded sarcastic, but when Tony said it he seemed genuinely annoyed that he was missing it.

'Someone's tapping it,' Bruce said to reassure his ScienceBro.

The bacon was piled high onto a plate and Tony and Pepper joined their comrades at the table, chowing down on the bacon rolls. Despite using three packets of bacon, none was left and Thor even asked for more.

**XxXxXxX**

'Are you sure you're up to this?' Pepper asked, arranging her hair neatly on top of her head when she and Tony were back in their room, getting ready for a board meeting.

Tony nodded; doing up his tie. 'We're the power couple behind Stark Industries aren't we?' he said, a glint in his eye. 'I won't let those bozos try anything funny. Our stocks have never been higher and they know it, especially after the Loki incident, our medical department trumped all the others stock market wise.'

'That's very true,' Pepper said, smiling as she undid Tony's tie and redid it more neatly. 'How did your discussion with Natashalie go this morning?'

'We were talking about putting collars on dogs.'

'Oh sweetie,' Pepper said teasingly, patting his cheek gently. 'I'm afraid that's been done before.'

'Ha ha,' Tony replied sarcastically, catching her hand and entwining their fingers together. 'We were thinking more like the dog in _Up.'_

Pepper grinned then frowned. 'At first I thought that would be an amazing idea,' she said. 'But then I thought about how creepy it would be hearing about how great another dog's butt smelt.'

Tony chuckled and bent down to kiss her. 'That's what we decided,' he said. 'It's still on the backburner though, just in case the company gets _really _desperate.'

Pepper smiled and finished her perfect Windsor knot, tucking her boyfriend's tie back into his jacket.

'Come on then Iron Man,' she said. 'Let's go show the board why Wall Street refers to us as the new Dynamic Duo.'

'Do they really call us that?' Tony said, grinning.

'That and the Pepperony Power Presidents of Stark Industries, but that _sucks.'_

'_Agreed.'_

**XxXxXxX**

Steve was sat in their main living room channel surfing. He'd considered going out for a run or doing some art work, but laziness had won over both and he decided that today was going to be a sofa day.

Tony and Pepper had left for their very important board meeting, Clint and Natasha were beating each other up in the gym and Jane and Thor had gone shopping, leaving him and Bruce alone in the tower.

The latter appeared about half an hour into _Dodgeball _clasping a plate laden with chocolate cakes and biscuits and two mugs of coffee, handing one to Steve without saying anything.

Steve gladly took the proffered mug with a murmured 'thanks' and the two of them sat down to watch.

They then decided that it would be a good idea to distract Tony and Pepper by texting them quotes repeatedly.

'If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball!'

'Cram in up your cram-hole, LeFleur!'

'Steeeeeeeve the pirate.'

'Take care of your balls and they'll take care of you!'

'Fucking Chuck Norris!'

Once the film was over and they'd run out of quotes a conversation was struck up about how _exactly _the Hulk had come into being. Steve knew the basics, but he desperately wanted to at least be able to understand _something _when Tony and Bruce were in ScienceMode and no-one else could understand what on earth they were talking about.

'Does it still feel the same?' Steve asked. 'Every time you transform does it still feel the same as the first time it happened? All that pain and rage?' Steve knew Bruce wouldn't mind talking about it. The doctor was very open when it came to talking about the Hulk, he didn't want his teammates to feel like they couldn't talk about it with him. Plus, the more they knew about the 'Other Guy', the better it was for them, right? That's the way Bruce saw it anyway.

'It feels about the same,' Bruce replied. 'It still hurts, it always hurts, but it's the disorientation that comes after it that I hate the most. Not knowing where I am, whether I've hurt anyone…' he shrugged. 'Hulk knows it though, and while I still don't think we're the best of buds, despite what Tony says, he is making sure I'm near a landmark or a person when I come back, unless that's a coincidence.'

Bruce sighed and looked down at his hands, the very hands that had typed out the equation into the computer, loaded up the gamma molecules into the machine, given the thumbs up to Betty Ross to press the big button… the hands that had nearly cost her her life.

'It hurt when I was given the serum,' Steve said. 'Not as much as becoming the Hulk I'm sure, but I was locked in that metal container and I could _feel _my muscles stretching and my organs becoming stronger and it _hurt. _And I could hear Howard and Dr Erskine outside controlling the whole thing but I felt so alone, locked in a cage full of pain. Is that what being inside the Hulk feels like?'

Bruce considers the question for a second, and then shakes his head. 'No,' he says. 'It's more like being in a cage of confusion, not knowing what's happening, not having control of your own body or even really your mind, relying on someone else to keep you alive… it's a strange sensation, I can't really put it into words.'

'We're good, aren't we?' Steve said, smiling and holding his hand out.

'Yeah,' Bruce said, shaking it. 'We're good.' There was a pause for a second as the two men contemplated the weirdness of existence then Bruce pulled his laptop forward. 'Now pay attention,' he told the super soldier. 'Tony and I were thinking about a new fuel for cars so you'll probably hear us talking about it this evening, if you can make an input it will a) confuse the hell of out Tony and b) make you understand global warming a bit better, so…'

**XxXxXxX**

Clint and Natasha appeared while Bruce and Steve were watching _Diamonds Are Forever, _they were saving the Lord of the Rings marathon for when everyone was there but for now Bruce had decided that not knowing who James Bond was was _criminal. _Clint was sporting a black eye and a bleeding nose and Natasha's hair was flying out all over the place. She did however look untouched and was looking very pleased with herself.

That evening, when Bruce and Tony started talking about ideas for a cleaner, non-Carbon Monoxide producing fuel for cars, Steve was pleased to find that he was actually able to join in the conversation and the look of Tony's face was _priceless._

When Pepper finished work for the day and had changed into a soft, worn pair of jeans and Tony's MIT sweater, letting her hair down loose around her shoulders, she found the superhero team in the living room with _The Fellowship of the Ring _on pause. She was greeted with a round of 'PEPPER!' by everyone in the room and draped herself across Tony (once upon a time they had enough seats for everyone but Steve and Thor were just so _big),_ making herself comfortable with her feet curled up in his lap and using his chest as a pillow. Tony draped an arm around her shoulders and she tucked her head under his chin, one ear pressed against his chest listening to the steady beat of his heart as the film started to roll.

**XxXxXxX**

Fury himself turned up the next morning along with Dr Penlock when the six of them (Jane, Pepper and Betty had gone shopping) were all gathered around the kitchen island arguing over who deserved the last slice of bacon.

Penlock took all of their vital signs and made Tony do a systems check on the Arc even though Tony knew it was _fine _because if it wasn't he'd be _dead _and told them all to take painkillers if necessary and avoid strenuous exercise.

He gave Tony a pointed look when he said this.

'I refute it thus!' Tony exclaimed, kicking the table.

No-one but Bruce understood this reference and Tony didn't mention that he'd _already _been participating in strenuous exercise with his wonderful amazing girlfriend and screw you you're not the boss of me.

Natasha and Clint were giving each other guilty looks and oh _boy _did everyone notice.

'What about Sergot?' Clint asked, asking the question they'd all been wondering about.

'He'll be brought before the Council later today,' Fury said. 'In the meantime, listen to Dr Penlock (again another pointed glare at Tony) and don't do anything stupid or I'll have all your asses on lock down on the Helicarrier, understood?'

The six of them made a non-committal noise that could or could not be viewed as being an agreement and decided that, since they weren't allowed to do strenuous exercise, they would spend their day lying on the sofa eating ice cream and watching films, not that no strenuous exercise had hurt them before but this was just one of those days.

They also noticed that Fury had pinched the last piece of bacon when he left.

Bastard.

Their sofa plan also turned into Steve drawing all of them, Thor singing some Asgardian drinking songs, Clint and Natasha having a wrestling match on the sofa and Tony painting Natasha's toe-nails for her. When the three girls came in later that evening and found Tony and Bruce singing The Element Song very loudly with Clint playing piano they headed straight for the Ben and Jerry's before using their other half's as cushions and continuing their _Lord of the Rings _marathon.

'You do realise that this,' Pepper whispered to Tony gesturing around them. 'Is the closest thing to "normal" that we are ever going to get?'

'You'd get bored if it was anything else,' Tony whispered back, nuzzling her neck.

'I'm not disputing that.'

'Guys! Shut up and watch the film!' Clint announced.

_Normal? _Tony thought to himself. _Normal my ass._

* * *

_And so concludes the story! Thank you so so much for sticking with me you are literally the best people :D_

_Everyone seems to like the sequel idea so I've been playing around with a few things. It'll be called 'Welcome To The New Age' (inspired by the Imagine Dragons song 'Radioactive') and here is a little bit of a preview for you :) Let me know what you think!_

The sky above him was a burnt red and as far as he could see were black trees and burnt grass, moving gently in the breeze which carried along the distinct smell of smoke. The moan had come from Clint, who was lying on his side and was blinking at him in confusion.

'Did we go out drinking again last night?' he rasped.

Tony shook his head, he distinctly remembered joining Bruce in the lab where they'd been brainstorming ideas for new arrowheads for Clint, then he remembered a voice, Pepper's voice, bright light, and the sensation of being thrown backwards.

'I think something may have exploded,' Clint said frowning and pushing himself into a sitting position, gazing about him at their surroundings. 'I don't think we're in Kansas anymore,' he quipped, making Tony chuckle.

The two men pulled themselves to their feet and stood on the grass with the burnt wind breezing past them and that smell of ozone making them wrinkle their noses.

Suddenly, a noise came from behind them and they spun round to face the newcomer who turned out to be…

A dog.

A _fucking massive dog._

**XxXxXxX**_  
_

****_And on that bombshell..._

_please review! :D_


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